By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it doesn’t look like Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) will be “cleaning up” the light welterweight division like he’s said so many times in the past. After having gone life and death with the 2nd tier Julio Diaz (40-8-1, 29 KO’s) last Saturday night in winning a close 12 round decision, Khan is now saying he wants only one more fight at 140 before moving up to 147 to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. or the other top welterweights in the division.
Khan wants to fight Danny Garcia or Lamont Peterson next in December, but he may end up having to face Lucas Matthysse if he ends up emerging on top of the unofficial light welterweight tourney that Golden Boy Promotions is putting on.
Khan told the BBC Sport “Garcia or Peterson or a few of the fighters up above [147]…I’ll have one more fight [at 140], and I want to be a world champion before I move up and face someone like Floyd Mayweather or the other top fighters.”
Even though Golden Boy is going out of their way to make sure Khan succeeds by having put him in with the 2nd tier Julio Diaz instead of dangerous guy like Matthysse, Khan is still going to have huge problem when it comes time for him to face someone like Danny Garcia, Peterson or Matthysse.
Golden Boy may have protected Khan somewhat by letting him avoid fighting two tough guys to get to the finals of the tournament, but he’s still going to have to face the top dog and that’s not going to be easy for him to do, Khan is starting to look like a shot fighter, and we saw that with how Diaz was able to not only put Khan down in the 4th, but hurt him many times with hard shots that had Khan holding on in the last four rounds.
The saddest part of all is that Diaz isn’t a big puncher and yet he was still able to have Khan on the verge of being knocked out. That tells me that Khan’s days are numbered as a top fighter. We’ve seen other fighters in the past that were finished at an early age despite still having blazing hand speed Meldrick Taylor.
He was never the same after he was stopped in the 12th round by Julio Cesar Chavez in 1990 and I think the punishment that Khan has taken in his fights with Marcos Maidana and Danny Garcia has caught up to him now and has made him a fighter that is basically a past his prime and heading for palookaville.
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