By Aaron Klein: Having seen undefeated lightweight Amir Khan (18-0, 14 KOs) on approximately a dozen occasions, I have serious doubts whether he’ll ever be ready to take on top level opposition such as Nate Campbell, Manny Pacquiao, Humberto Soto, David Diaz, Joel Casamayor or Michael Katsidis. I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, but Khan, from what I’ve seen of him, he doesn’t have the chin to compete in the lightweight division. In fact, I don’t think he has the chin to compete in the sport of boxing at all, period. He’s like the equivalent of Wladimir Klitschko in the lightweight division, except that he doesn’t have a big left hook or fight hand like Klitchko possesses.

Khan does, however, have excellent speed and movement, which is why he’s still undefeated at this early point in his career. His chin, though, is like fine china that you have to handle with the utmost care for fear that you might break it. The problem is, the direction that Khan is heading, namely against better fighters with a heck of a punch, he’s going to be getting hit a lot no matter how fast his own punches or how much he opts to run around the ring.

Evidence of Khan’s brittle chin was brought to the fore in his last fight against faded, smallish, former super featherweight Michael Gomez, who knocked Khan down with a big left hand in the 3rd round.

This was not a good sign for Khan, because it wasn’t the first time that he’s been hurt in a fight, and I suppose it won’t be the last, either. What it does seem to suggest is that Khan doesn’t have the chin that’s required of him in stepping it up against better fighters. He’s got everything else – speed, movement, decent power and a good work-rate – but his chin is bloody awful. I’d like to think that it’s something that will improve over time, kind of like other things like boxing technique, but this is the one area that rarely ever changes for a fighter.

In fact, more often than not, the more a fighter is hurt in the ring, he generally tends to get hurt easier. A fighter’s punch resistance often goes downhill after getting hurt too often or badly. Because it involves the brain, which heals slower than other organs, it can last a career sometimes. When a problem like a brittle chin is discovered by a training team, they often try to fix the problem by teaching the fighter defensive boxing skills.

For instance, adding more movement in the ring, blocking punches, moving the torso, clinching much more often, using the jab, staying at a distance and slugging much less often. If those skills still don’t fix the problem, then they try to steer the fighter away from big punchers, directing them towards the lighter boxer-type fighters. Sometimes when it’s unavoidable to do this, you’ll see a fighter giving up his belt in order to avoid the opponent and seek greener – easier – fights in other divisions.

This is something that may be in store for Khan in the future should his ability to learn how to protect his brittle chin fail. Good news is that he’s recently hired a new trainer, Jorge Rubio, who may help him with his chin problem by teaching him to sorely lacking defensive skills. The problem is, Khan won’t have much time to absorb what Rubio is teaching him before having to test them against the big puncher Colombian Breidis Prescott (19-0, 17 KOs) on September 6th.

Prescott may be unskilled and slow as heck, but if Khan stands in front of him trying to land his pesky body shots, you can be certain that Prescott will put a hurting on Khan’s chin in a hurry. Frankly, I can’t see Khan taking any kind of punishment from Prescott without hitting the canvas at least once or twice, and for that reason I don’t expect Khan to stand in front of him for more than a few seconds at a time. Prescott has the kind of power that will expose the worst in Khan an instant, and put him on the canvas.

The Colombian has no quit in him, and will keep coming forward, walking through Khan’s shots until he hits pay dirt and lands one of his huge home run shots and sends Khan down. I suppose it’s better to have Khan getting knocked around at this early stage by a low level fighter, albeit with world class power, like Prescott rather than rushing Khan into a fight with Campbell and watching Khan get destroyed in six or seven rounds. I do think that one of these days, perhaps in seven to ten years, Khan can beat the now 36 year-old Campbell, although it won’t be particularly fair by then because Campbell will be well over 40 by then.

In a way, it’s like Joe Calzaghe fighting 43 year-old Bernard Hopkins, and barely beating him. A win is win, I suppose, and that’s all that matters. In the case of Pacquiao, I don’t think Khan could simply wait him out until he’s too old like Campbell, because Pacquiao has speed and power and will probably be able to beat the likes of Khan no matter how old he is.

I think the best option for Khan, short of getting a few big fights and then retiring, would be to try and avoid all big sluggers he can, and possibly try and strip off a little more weight and move down to the super featherweight division. They don’t hit as hard down there and he could probably dominate for awhile with his huge height and reach advantage. Even better, Pacquiao has recently moved up to the lightweight division, so he wouldn’t have to worry about fighting him.

He might, however, have to avoid Humberto Soto, who I see taking his head off if they were to fight, but he’ll likely be moving up as well. As for fighting light welterweight Ricky Hatton, something that has been kicked around with in the media for the last two days, that would be the worst mistake of Khan’s career.

Not only do I see Hatton destroying Khan, but I think he’d hurt him bad enough possibly to put him out of boxing for good. The stick-like Khan would get broken like a twig by Hatton, who would make easy work with him once he started landing his big shots on that lantern jaw of Khan’s.