Current WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, who many see as an eventual successor to pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao, is looking at new promoters.
His current promoter Frank Warren is good enough on the way up it seems, but many British boxers tend to leave him after they break into the big time and win a title or two (see Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, and for an extreme example Terry Marsh)
While Khan is in talks with several promoters, Top Rank and Golden Boy are looking like the two front runners. Now supposing Khan takes over when Manny retires and wins titles in multiple weight divisions and becomes the pound for pound top dog, now would be the time to sign him up as a promoter.
With Golden Boy representing Floyd Mayweather in the negotiations between himself and Manny, Golden Boy are effectively burning themselves twice. Training with Manny every day and hearing first hand about the difficulties between Top Rank and Golden Boy, Khan will be hard pushed not to run into the waiting arms of Big Bob Arum rather than the promoters who are effectively damaging the reputation and career of his friend and training partner Manny Pacquiao.
If Golden Boy had handled the situation with the blood testing (At the moment stalled somewhere between a deadline and a hard place), then Khan might well have signed with them rather then Top Rank. Aside from having a decent roster, they also effectively have the Ring title and rankings in their pockets because Oscar De La Hoya owns both companies.
Along with Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley, Khan may well be the future of the division, and signing him would be a major coup for Golden Boy at this stage of his career.
An interesting aside for Amir is that he works with the same trainer and team as Pacquiao for the most part, and reportedly takes the same natural blend of supplements that Alex Ariza gives to Manny. Would Golden Boy ask for Khan to undergo extra testing for having trained with Manny even if he as their fighter? Common sense dictates no, although there hasn’t been a lot of it to go around lately.
Perhaps even more ridiculous, if Khan signed with Golden boy and would up fighting Manny in a few years time (I’m not saying it will ever happen, you’ll have to use your imaginations here), would Golden Boy demand extra testing then as well? Given of course that Khan sees what Manny takes and knows he’s every bit as clean as himself.
