Amir Khan wants Pacquiao match-up in Dubai

British-Pakistani boxing champion who has been at the top of the sport for the past 15 years, Amir Khan has unveiled that he wants to make history by bringing the first-ever title fight to Dubai and said there would be no better opponent than his old Filipino friend Manny Pacquiao.

In an exclusive interview with Arabian Business, he said:

“There’s consistently talk about a fight in Dubai but the only fight, if it was ever going to happen in Dubai, which would be huge, would be a Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan fight. There’s a lot of Filipinos here and it’s not far from the Philippines, you’ve got a lot of English expats.

“I believe that’s the only fight, which would be the biggest, but who knows.”

A former unified light-welterweight world champion, Amir has stressed that any future fight, whether in Dubai or anywhere else in the world, would have to include fans.

UFC’s Fight Island has just finished in Abu Dhabi, where bouts were contested without crowds. While that was considered a huge success for the sport, Khan admitted that it wasn’t something he was warming to.

“They’re saying that boxing can go ahead behind closed doors but I don’t know if it’s going to be possible or if I’m even going to be up for it. I can’t see it working. You want the fans there to pump you up,” he said.

“I’m going to wait for a couple more months. I don’t want to leave it too long, I want to be back in the ring quite soon, but we just don’t know when this is going to end.”