By William Mackay: Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) hasn’t decided whether to fight next in the UK or the United States for his upcoming December 15th fight date. However, does say he won’t be taking on 36-year-old Joan Guzman, as he’s looking for a better name. Khan also says he’ll be traveling to New York to look for a new trainer – to presumably replace Freddie Roach.

Speaking with the Manchester Evening News, Khan said “I’ll be going to New York to speak to a few coaches…I’m fighting on December 15, no opponents arranged yet, but we’re in talks with a few. I want someone who is a bit more credible than him [Joan Guzman].”

It looks like Khan plans on choosing a live body for his next fight on December 15th instead of a scrub. I wonder how smart that is? If he looking for someone better than Guzman, who isn’t a bad fighter, then Khan is going to be taking on someone good. That might be dangerous for him at this point.

Khan also mentioned Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins as possible mentors for help him turn his career around and end his two-fight losing streak.

It’s highly questionable whether mentors can turn things around for Khan. Mentors can only do so much with a fighter that has so many flaws, both physical and mental in terms of knowledge gaps, and it’s possible that Khan simply is beyond help.

It looks like Khan’s current trainer Freddie Roach is about to become a casualty from Khan having lost his last two fights against Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia. In a way I think Roach is a victim here, because if you listed to him talk to Khan in between rounds he seemed to give Khan pretty reasonable advice for him to box, stay off the ropes and avoid slugging. Khan spent a lot of times on the ropes in his loss to Peterson and that likely had a huge factor in him losing that fight. Additionally, Roach clearly told Khan not to slug with Garcia in his 4th round TKO last July, but Khan failed to follow Roach’s advice and came out slugging for the most part. Khan did do some boxing, but he did way too much punching with Garcia and it cost him when he was badly hurt by a big left hook from Garcia in the 3rd.

I can’t blame Roach for any of those losses, because those seemed to be all Khan’s fault. At the same time, I can understand Khan wanting to boot Roach. Khan did look helpless when he was being pressured on the inside by Peterson, and it’s hard to believe that Roach didn’t teach him more skills in how to work on the inside or at least how to nullify a pressure fighter’s attacks when in close.