BRITISH lightweight Amir Khan, who was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles to begin training under Freddie Roach at his Wild Card Gym, is hoping that Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao can help prepare him for his showdown with Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera at the MEN Arena in Britain on March 14.

Khan sparred a few times with Pacquiao when the world?s no. 1 pound-for-pound fighter was preparing for his mega-buck battle with Oscar de la Hoya last Dec. 6 and by all accounts, did well.

Roach said he doesn?t believe the fight is a gamble and said Khan was too fast and too strong for Barrera at the lightweight limit.

The only blemish in Khan?s career was his first-round KO at the hands of Breidis Prescott last September, but he came back to score an impressive second-round demolition of Oisin Fagin in his next bout after a training stint under Roach in LA.

To Khan, the fight against Barrera is not a gamble.

?I?m going to learn so much from it. At this stage, its brilliant for me,? the 22-year-old was quoted as telling Sporting Life in Britain.

He will clearly bank on the insights of Pacquiao who ripped Barrera apart in 11 rounds in November 2003 in San Antonio, Texas, and then scored a lopsided victory in a rematch in late 2007. Roach prepared Pacquiao for both encounters.

Khan is hoping that Roach will be able to travel back with him to London some two weeks before the Barrera fight. But that is unlikely to happen if the contentious issue of revenue sharing in the Pacquiao mega-buck battle with Ricky ?The Hitman? Hatton is resolved since Pacquiao will begin training on March 1 at the Wild Card. Ronnie Nathanielsz