By Edward Chaykovsky

Former world champion Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) is still waiting to get word on whether or not a deal will be finalized to face his friend and former sparring partner, eight division king Manny Pacquiao.

Discussions have been going on for several weeks and Pacquiao is expected to make a final call by the end of this month.

Khan has been out of the ring since a late May decision win over Chris Algieri. Pacquiao has also been away from the ring since May, after losing a twelve round decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. After that fight, Pacquiao had surgery to correct a right shoulder injury.

Pacquiao-Khan is being targeted for early 2016 and should take place on or before April 9th.

The two fighters trained side by side for several years, when both were being trained by Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles. Khan left Roach in 2012 and hired Virgil Hunter.

Roach has made a lot of comments about Pacquiao busting up Khan in sparring sessions and even claimed the British star was dropped and even knocked out. Khan has aggressively denied Roach's statements and claims to have gotten the better of Pacquiao during their sparring battles.

“He is a great fighter. This could be one of the highlights of my career. I had the better of him in training. So let’s see [what happens in the ring]. He has something very special. In spite of being eight years younger than him, it will not be easy to beat him,” Khan told Rediff of India.