Amir Khan is on standby to replace Manny Pacquiao in the fight of the century.
In case the fraught road to boxing's first $200million pay-night proves too tortuous for Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jnr to travel together, Khan is being primed to step into his Pacman friend's shoes against America's Money Man.
Pacquiao versus Mayweather for the mythical title of best pound-for-pound boxer on the planet is the fight the whole world wants to see but so divisive is the acrimony between them and so troubled Floyd Junior's life that we may never be given that privilege. As those doubts deepen by the day - with Mayweather facing the possibility of jail time when he answers battery and grand larceny charges in Las Vegas - Plan B was being hatched in London at the weekend.
Khan, Britain's former Olympic silver medallist, was alerted to the hugely enriching prospect awaiting him if he can unify the world light-welterweight championship in his next two fights.
Richard Schaefer, chief executive of Golden Boy promotions, mapped out the path leading to an alternative mega-bout between Mayweather and Khan next September.
'If we can't make Mayweather-Pacquiao in the spring it may be too late,' says Schaefer. 'So this gives us time to build Amir into a pay-per-view super-star in the US.'
That is the colossal incentive for Khan to withstand Argentine challenger Marcos Maidana's concussive punching power in Vegas on December 11.
If he can overcome that clear and present danger, Bolton's WBA champion faces a unification match next spring against the winner between his two rival world title holders Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley, who are due to meet in January.
Win that - with America watching live on HBO - and the mother-lode awaits him.
Even if Mayweather is convicted of assaulting the mother of his two children and stealing her mobile phone, most legal experts in Nevada expect him to be free to resume boxing in good time to face Khan by late summer or early autumn next year.
That possibility is heightened by the suspicion that Pacquiao will not wait around indefinitely for Mayweather now that he has been elected to the Phillipines Congress, a political role he takes most seriously.
Nor has the current pound-for-pound king been impressed by the racist insults hurled at him by Mayweather following unsubstantiated insinuations that he may have taken performance enhancing substances.
While Mayweather faces up to his court battle on November 9, Pacquiao will be in the ring four days later, boxing the talented but controversial Mexican Antonio Margarito in front of a 50,000-plus crowd in the new and spectacular Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
Unless Mayweather can get his act together quickly that could be the Pacman's last fight, even though his master-trainer Freddie Roach is saying: 'Just in case Floyd sorts himself out, we have a plan in the making to stop him in eight rounds, even though this would be Manny's most complicated fight.'
It is hugely improbable, however, that Pacquiao would delay his retirement beyond next spring so as to fight his friend and spar-mate Khan.
Both are trained by Roach and neither would want to take on that challenge without him in their corner.
Boxing, however, offers Mayweather his best chance of salvation. Although his own pound-for-pound claims will not stand up unless he fights Pacquiao, Schaefer is right to say: 'Floyd needs to get back in the gym and the ring, doing what he does best. While he is training and fighting he has no time for all the nonsense and distractions.'
So Khan declares himself ready to seize the moment, saying: 'I would love to fight Mayweather and believe I can end his unbeaten record. I have to focus on Maidana first, then the winner of Bradley and Alexander. There are risks there but I am fully confident of winning both those fights.'
Negotiations for his pound-for-pound challenge to Mayweather would be comparatively simple, since both are promoted by Golden Boy.
So, as Schaefer dined in his favourite West End restaurant, he held out the mouth-watering prospect of Britain not only gobbling up its share of world titles but of savouring the ring's most hallowed crown of all.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
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