By William Mackay: On his twitter page, World Boxing Association Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) says that he’ll be fighting unbeaten WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (25-0, 11 KO’s) this year in 2010. Khan says “It aint my problem [Juan Manuel] Marquez pulled out, and now we fighting Paulie Malignaggi. Tim Bradley will happen this year. Let me my debut in USA. I aint ducking nobody in this moment of time. Malignaggi is a great fight to enter U.S. Boxing is a business, Guys, and I need to make a living. Come on, Guys, why hate. I’m fighting Paulie Malignaggi, and will KO him. I am willing to make a loss in money in this fight just to shut mouths.”

Presumably, Khan is talking about Malignaggi when he mentions shutting mouths because if Khan thinks that his choice of Malignaggi as an opponent will be shutting the mouths of his critics, he’s probably sadly mistaken. Some boxing fans are happy with Khan’s choice of Malignaggi as an opponent, but it seems like a lot more wish Khan would have fought WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana instead.

At least Maidana, with his huge punching power, would have a chance to beat Khan. Malignaggi will likely have zero chance of beating Khan because he has no power to speak of.

The news that Khan will fight Bradley in 2010 is pretty interesting. Bradley is considered by many people to be the best fighter in the light welterweight division. If Khan is serious about fighting Bradley this year, that would be a huge step up from Andriy Kotelnik, Dmitri Salita and Malignaggi. It remains to be seen though whether Khan’s promotional company, Golden Boy Promotions, allows Khan to fight Bradley.

You could certainly say the same thing about Bradley as you do Maidana. He’s not a well known fighter to the casual boxing fans, and might not be worth the trouble that he would bring to the young Khan. It would win Khan a lot of respect if he fights Bradley, but casual boxing fans would probably care less if he does or not because Bradley isn’t a huge star yet. Of course, casual boxing fans in the United States have no idea who Khan either.

And if Khan keeps fighting guys like Salita and Malignaggi, they will likely continue to have no clue Khan is. For Khan to become a big star, he’s going to fight opponents with a big name and he needs to start fighting younger guys with talent instead of old fighters like Marco Antonio Barrera weaker ones like Malignaggi. The bad thing about Khan facing Bradley is that if he does face Bradley then it will mean that Khan won’t be fighting Maidana this year, and probably not in 2011 either.

The reason is Khan will probably get easily beaten and likely knocked out by Bradley. Once that happens, his promotional company won’t want to put him in with a killer puncher like Maidana and risk having Khan get beaten yet again. Khan will likely enter the rebuilding stage of his career once again like he did the time he was knocked out by Breidis Prescott in the 1st round in September 2008.