By Eric Thomas: According to The Sun, promoter Frank Warren is hoping that the World Boxing Organization (WBO) will sanction the March 14th lightweight battle between Amir Khan (19-1, 15 KOs) and Marco Antonio Barrera (65-6, 43 KOs) and make the now vacant title be on the line on that night. Certainly, Barrera, who’s ranked #1 in the WBO, would be a worthy challenger for the title.
But in the case of Khan, ranked #9, it’s not so certain that would fly with the WBO, especially with excellent fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez (rated#2), Juan Diaz (rated #3) and Ali Funeka (rated #5), all ranked ahead of the 22-year-old Khan. At the same time, I don’t know if Warren would be doing Khan any favors by having the WBO title on the line for the fight because Khan stands a good chance of beating the 35-year-old Barrera, who has only recently moved up to the lightweight division and hasn’t looked good in his two fights since making the jump up from the super featherweight division.
The reason it wouldn’t be a good thing for Khan is that he’s only one fight removed from his 1st round TKO loss to Breidis Prescott in September 2008, and if Khan does beat Barrera, then Amir would likely find himself having to defend the title against someone really good like the above mentioned Marquez, Diaz, Funeka, all of which I see knocking Khan out without too many problems.
Those fighters are in a different class as far I can tell, and regardless of how well trained Khan is, he would have a lot of problems if having to face these guys. That’s not to say that he couldn’t possibly beat them someday, because he might in the future if he can keep improving.
But it’s probably not a wise move to put him in a position just yet where he’s likely faced with the prospect of fighting them at this early point in his career. Of course, Khan will make a nice amount of money by winning the title and defending it against one of the lower ranked fighters in the lightweight division for his first defense.
Khan would get a good payday for that fight, and for a fight against someone like Marquez or Diaz, but it would come at a price. If he gets knocked out in the 1st or 2nd by one of those guys, something I have a good feeling would happen, it would be damaging to his career with boxing fans and possibly damaging to him physically and mentally.
Probably the last thing he needs right now, or anytime soon in the future, is to face a murderous puncher with talent and skills that can take him out again. If he’s struggling to beat fighters like Prescott, then he probably has no business fighting for a title – at least for now.
The WBO title is open because Nate Campbell, the lightweight champion up until this past week, was unable to make weight for his weigh-in for Saturday’s fight against challenger Funeka.
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