By Scott Gilfoid: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is putting his fighter former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) in a position to where he’ll be able to capture three of the four 140 pound belts by beating the winner of the four-man light welterweight tournament in December.
Schaefer said to RingTV: “Amir wants to clean up the 140-pound weight class and, I think, what better way to do that than a big December fight against the winner of these other great matchups.”
Khan fights former IBF lightweight champion Julio Diaz (40-7-1, 29 KO’s) at a 143 pound catch-weight on April 27th at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Schaefer says he’s not sure if Khan will want to take the three pounds off after the fight to move back down to 140 or not to face the winner of the light welterweight tournament, but he thinks he Khan will in order to “Clean up the division.”
Even if Khan were to beat the winner of the tourney, he still wouldn’t actual have “cleaned up” the 140 pound division in the true sense of the word. For that to happen, Khan would have to beat every one of the four fighters in the tournament. He can’t just beat the winner of the tourney and then start crowing how he’s cleaned up the division because that’s not cleaning up the division.
Boxing is about match-ups, so even if he beats one of the four, it doesn’t mean he can beat all four. I mean, I don’t see Khan beating the winner of the tourney, if he even fights him, but I don’t think he will cleaned up anything if he beats the winner and then moves up to 147 after patting himself on the back for having cleaned up the division.
The only way Khan cleans up the 140 pound division is if he beats Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson and Zab Judah. If he beats all four, then Khan can crow and move up to 147 having pretty much cleaned up the division. There would still be Mike Alvarado and Brandon Rios that he wouldn’t have fought, but those guys are with Top Rank, and it’s not possible for Khan to fight either of those guys. They’re like in a different boxing league now with the way the Top Rank, Golden Boy, Showtime and HBO have it set up.
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