Amir Khan has come top of a twitter poll to elect Manny Pacquiao’s next opponent, with the fight projected to take place in the Middle East in April.
Doubts had been growing about Pacquiao going ahead with a fight against undefeated Aussie Jeff Horn.
Now Pacquiao has asked his fans to vote on who he should face next.
Khan has come top with 48 per cent of the votes, ahead of British rival Kell Brook, Horn and Terence Crawford
The Pacman launched the ballot, thereby throwing mischievous, if potentially golden, spanner into the plans of Khan and Brook.
No sooner did Brook decide to start shedding the poundage in readiness for a defence of his world welterweight title against mandatory challenger Errol Spence Jnr than Pacquiao has tossed him into his own highly lucrative mix.
Just as Khan figured he had better start his comeback with a warm-up fight this spring before finally meeting Brook in the autumn, he too finds himself on the Pacman’s deadly dance card.
Even as the whole wide world of boxing firmly believed Pacquiao to be preparing for a fight with Jeff Horn in Australia on April 22, he suddenly launched a poll on Twitter asking his fans to vote for who should be his next opponent ? in the United Arab Emirates.
Khan, no doubt helped by his huge army of Twitter followers, dominated the voting. That puts him in pole position to bank a further fortune.
As he was when on his way to winning a similar election held by Floyd Mayweather, who promptly ignored the result. So he will take nothing for granted despite topping this vote.
However, the Pacman’s sudden declaration of the UAE as the venue for his next outing will strengthen Khan’s claim.
A devout Muslim, Britain’s former Olympic silver medallist and two-time world champion has received several substantial offers to box in Dubai or Abu Dhabi in recent years.
Nevertheless, Pacquiao’s intervention complicates future life for the two Brits on the ballot.
The only eight-division world champion in ring history is also a senator now in his native Philippines but, even at 38, he remains a potent enough force in gloves to start as firm favourite against either Khan or Brook.
Should that form book hold true and one them become the loser, that defeat would dilute the hefty earning potential for their long-awaited British blockbuster.
The deal for the Horn fight was understood to be finalised but it appears now that Pacquiao has not signed a contract for that opponent, nor for the venue in Queensland.
For it to go through, the Aussie may have to relinquish home advantage and travel to the Gulf.
Crawford, the gifted American prodigy, will be regarded by Pacquiao as presenting the toughest task but he is in the same promotional stable, Top Rank, whose boss Bob Arum has long been keen on that fight.
That one, though, would be a big pay-per-view earner in Las Vegas on the November date earmarked for Pacquiao’s fight after next, assuming he carries on boxing.
Meanwhile, an April offer from the PacMan would be one neither Khan nor Brook could refuse.
Both are in the running despite being knocked out when they risked going up to middleweight for marquee fights last time out, against Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin respectively.
Khan is committed to training back down to welterweight, the division over which Pacquiao currently reigns.
So is Brook, according to this tweet of his from the weekend in reference to the IBF 147lbs title he still holds: ‘All that work to give it up? Never ducked a challenge in my life. Here to give the fans what they want @ErrolSpenceJr you are next.’
Brook has toyed with campaigning at light-middleweight but has apparently rejected that option, despite hating the effort it takes to drain down to welter.
His promoter Eddie Hearn has been reporting that the deal with Spence is virtually done, with the choice of venue between England and America one of the few details still to be resolved
That would appear to leave Khan as the favourite to land another jackpot. Albeit with a dilemma attached.
It is now almost a year since he suffered that spectacular KO by Canelo and it would be far from ideal to jump straight back into the ring with Pacquiao, without a rust-removing tune-up.
But in boxing, as in almost all things, money talks.
