By William Mackay: Trainer Freddie Roach believes that Ricky Hatton will be looking to line up a fight with Amir Khan (20-1, 15 KO’s) next if Amir defeats World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik (31-2, 13 KO’s) in their July 18th fight, according to Sky Sports.

Roach thinks that the fight would due incredibly well in the UK, where both Hatton and Khan are very popular fighters. Roach sees the fight happening soon and that he sees it making it ton of money for both fighters. “It would be a huge fight. Here in the UK you would sell a lot of tickets and make a lot of money. Why not? I think it would be a great fight,” Roach said.

However, it still comes down to Khan, 22, needing to beat Kotelnik on July 18th, because if Amir loses to the Ukrainian light welterweight champion, then all interest in a Khan-Hatton fight would be pretty much lost. Roach believes that Hatton is interested in the WBA title, and if Khan can’t win the fight, then Hatton might look elsewhere for a bout.

Khan has a huge obstacle in front of him in facing the 31-year-old Kotelnik, who has faced much better competition in his career than Khan. Kotelnik has faced Marcos Maidana, Mohamed Abdulaev, Souleymane M’baye, Gavin Rees and Junior Witter, winning three of the fights and losing two of them to M’baye and Witter by a narrow margin.

In contrast, Khan has faced a 35-year-old Marco Antonio Barrera and Breidis Prescott, losing to the Colombian Prescott by 1st round knockout. The other opponents on Khan’s record have been weak, the kind served up for fighters trying to build their skills.

Facing Kotelnik at this point in Khan’s career will be a huge risk because aside from the sparring that Khan has occasionally done with Manny Pacquiao, he hasn’t been in the ring with a fighter in the class of Kotelnik. With the potential of facing Hatton in the near future now a consideration, Khan has a lot of pressure on him going into his fight with Kotelnik. If Khan loses this fight, then a big money fight with Hatton will be out of the question, as well other potential big money fights with other opponents.

Hatton, 30, needs a big win right now to get his career back on track after his humbling 2nd round knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd. With few big named fighters in the light welterweight division for Hatton to fight, his best option available to him is a fight against the 22-year-old Khan. Other opponents like Maidana, Junior Witter, Timothy Bradley, Michael Katsidis and Kendall Holt are probably much too dangerous for Hatton to fight at this point and he’d make a lot less money in facing them.

What makes Khan so perfect, other than his popularity, is his vulnerability as a fighter. Khan has been hurt in several of his bouts by weak punchers and knocked out by the one big puncher he’s faced. Hatton may not be the same fighter he once was back in 2005, but he probably can punch with the same kind of power than Prescott possesses and if he can hit Khan with anything there’s a good chance that Hatton will be able to take him out early without having to get his own chin tested.