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Amir Khan admits to cherry-picking. Will Pacquiao do the same?

Written by Miguel Perez Saturday, 08 May 2010 03:00

WBA junior welterweight champon Amir Khan admitted that he has been cherry-picking his opponents. "You have to know the best time to have these big fights in your career. If you look at Oscar De La Hoya, he fought all the best fighters when they were on the way downhill, and not at their best. I want to catch these guys when they have come off their peak. But I have to be careful because there might be a younger version of me coming up who wants to do exactly the same to me.", Amir Khan told GQ Magazine.

Khan has been criticized by fellow boxers such as Paulie Malignaggi and Kevin Mitchelle for picking weaker opponents and avoiding the tougher ones. His statement only proves that the accusations against him are true. Amir's admission comes as a shock to me but I have to admire his honesty as this is very unlikely for someone from the Wild Card Gym. People who are linked with Freddie Roach are somewhat involved in different controversies. Talking about controversies in boxing, the first name that comes into my mind is 'Manny Pacquiao'.

Pacquiao has been criticized for many reasons including weight-draining his opponents, cheating on his wife, making friends with the wrong people, bad singing, and more. He's also being accused of using performance-enhancing drugs and cherry-picking his opponents. The use of PEDs can be traced through blood tests so it's quite easy to prove and disprove, but if he doesn't take them then it just means one thing -- he's guilty. Cherry-picking is quite subjective though, and it really depends on how each individual sees the arguments. If you ask me, yes, he definitely did cherry-pick his opponents. An aging Marco Antonio Barrera, a fading Erik Morales, an over-the-hill Oscar De La Hoya, an overrated Ricky Hatton, an apprehensive Miguel Cotto, and a timid Joshua Clottey.

Now that Amir Khan has admitted that he's guilty of picking easy opponents, I don't see no reason why Manny Pacquiao won't do the same? He should set an example for others. After all, he's the P4P king.

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