By William Mackay: Believe it or not, Showtime has reportedly bought the Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) vs. Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) mismatch and will be televising it on Showtime, likely on December 15th, according to Steve Kim. Stephen Espinosa, Showtime’s executive vice president of sports and event programming, has reportedly bought the Khan-Molina fight for some reason.

This is pretty shocking because this fight will undoubtedly be the main event and it’s not even close to being a top of the bill worthy fight. Khan has lost his last two fights, is no longer a world champion, and is fighting in experienced tiny 5’6″ lightweight in 26-year-old Carlos Molina. Like I’ve said before, this isn’t the junior middleweight contender Carlos Molina who has the same name, it’s the untested lightweight fringe contender Carlos Molina.

There’s huge difference here. The lightweight Molina has no power and is going to be out-gunned in every category you can think of in this fight. The 5’10” Khan is four inches taller with a four inch reach advantage, he’s a lot faster, he’s lot more powerful, he’s a lot more experienced and he’s much better fighter. Molina is just fringe lightweight contender who has yet to face his first contender in the lightweight division.

I’m really shocked that Showtime would put televise the Khan-Molina fight. I can understand them televising it if it were an undercard fight, but not a main event. This is sad fight for a main event.

One positive for this card is that that 2008 U.S Olympic heavyweight Bronze medalist Deontay Wilder could end up on the undercard of this fight against a likely weak opponent. RingTV is reporting that Wilder will be fighting on December 15th on Showtime, so it looks like he’ll find a home on the Khan-Molina fight card.

This means of course that boxing fans will quite possibly be seeing two quick early round knockouts with the Khan-Molina mismatch and the Wilder vs. TBA likely mismatch. I hope Showtime analysts can fill the dead air with some discussion and hopefully some additional fights. It’s never a good thing when the top two fights on a card are mismatches and they end early. Boxing fans are forced to watch obscure fighters they’ve never even heard of fighting in bouts that few people care about.

It’s unclear if HBO, who has been televising Khan’s fights for the past year, has passed on the Khan-Molina fight. You would have to imagine that Golden Boy Promotions first offered the fight to HBO before taking it to Showtime to see if they were interested in putting it on the air. I’m just stunned that Showtime would want to televise a mismatch like Khan vs. Molina as a main event. That’s not good television as far as I’m concerned. This is like an easy comeback fight for Khan, a confidence booster after he was blown out completely by WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia last July. Since it’s a mismatch it should be an undercard fight and not a main event. Molina has been selected from the lightweight to fight Khan. That tells you everything you need to know about this fight.

I wonder why Golden Boy keeps matching their fighters with opposition from divisions below them? WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi is fighting a light welterweight next month on October 20th in Brooklyn, New York. WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez just finished destroying a light welterweight in Josesito Lopez earlier this month, and now Khan, a light welterweight, is fighting a lightweight in Carlos Molina in December. I know it’s an easy way to guarantee a victory but what happens when these guys fight quality opposition from their own weight classes? Alvarez has to fight junior middleweight Erislandy Lara eventually unless Alvarez vacates his title. Maligaggi has to fight welterweight Thomas Dulorme sooner or later. And Khan is going to have to fight the top light welterweights again. Putting him in with a lightweight isn’t going to stop the inevitable from happening once Khan is put back in with a light welterweight that can punch.