Weigh-In: Khan 139.5, Salita 140; Mitchell 134, Prescott 135

By William Mackay: At today’s weigh-in, World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (21-1, 15 KO’s) weighed in at 139.5 for his title fight against unbeaten challenger Dmitriy Salita (30-0-1, 16 KO’s) on Saturday at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear. Salita, 27, weighed in at 140 for the bout. Salita is hoping to pull off a big upset by beating Khan in front of Amir’s home audience and move on to big money fights in the future against big named stars.

Lightweight Kevin Mitchell (29-0, 22 KO’s) weighed 134 for his bout against Colombian Breidis Prescott (21-1, 18 KO’s). Prescott, 26, weighed 135. Both Prescott and Mitchell are looking to win the fight with hopes of fighting Khan in the future. While Khan is hoping to fight Ricky Hatton if he wins tomorrow night. However, most people doubt that Khan will choose to fight Prescott should be win tomorrow night regardless of how good Prescott looks. Khan was destroyed in a 1st round knockout by Prescott last year in a fight in which Khan was dropped two times in the round. Khan hasn’t been overly interested in avenging the loss to Prescott for some reason. Instead, Khan explains the loss away saying that he made a mistake in the fight, and that he’d beat Prescott in a rematch.

The Mitchell-Prescott figures to be the more interesting bout on the card compared to the Khan-Salita fight, because Salita has very little hand speed and seems badly over-matched in this fight. In contrast, Prescott and Mitchell, both sluggers, look to be a much more exciting fight because both of them will be going right after each other trying for a knockout. Prescott looks to be the much more powerful puncher, but Mitchell is dangerous as well if he can establish himself on the inside. Mitchell is giving up a lot of height and reach and will have to get in close to land his shots.

Khan perhaps got his excuse to not fight Prescott again when Prescott was beaten by the slick Miguel Vazquez in a 10 round decision in his last fight in July. It doesn’t make boxing fans forget the image of Khan being flattened by Prescott, to be sure, but it does give Khan a good reason to look in another direction for a fight.

Khan says he wants to fight in the U.S. from now on where he hopes to become a big star in the future. Khan’s main target right now is Ricky Hatton, who up until recently had ruled out a fight against Khan. However, it’s now looking like Hatton is having second thoughts about that and could possibly fight Khan in the future.

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