By Jim Dower: In news that doesn’t shock me one bit, British lightweight Amir Khan (20-1, 15 KOs) isn’t interested in fighting Marco Antonio Barrera (65-7, 43 KOs) again. This after beating the former super featherweight champion Barrera by a 5th round technical decision on March 14th, a fight in which Barrera was cut badly on the upper forehead in the 1st round. The fight was allowed to continue by the ringside doctor until the 5th, at which point it was stopped, giving Khan, 22, the victory.
Strangely enough, if the fight had been stopped a round earlier, the bout would have been ruled a no-contest. It hardly matters, though, because Barrera was too small, too old and too slow to give Khan any real problems in the fight.
Even if Khan wanted to give Barrera a rematch, the interest isn’t there for the boxing public after watching how easily Khan was dominating Barrera through the five rounds of the fight. Many people predicted that Khan would have an easy time because the thirty-five year-old Barrera hasn’t looked really good since 2005, and he appears to be on the decline as a fighter.
Instead of facing Barrera again, the word is that Khan may be facing former World Boxing Council lightweight champion David Diaz (34-2-1, 17 KOs). If that does turn out to be the case, it would be another safe fight for Khan, much like the fight against Barrera.
Diaz, 32, is only 5’6” and is small for lightweight. He briefly held into the WBC lightweight title until being stopped in the 9th round by Manny Pacquiao in June 2008, a fight which was totally one-sided with Pacquiao wiping the deck with Diaz for nine rounds before putting him away. Diaz, in a lot of ways, is very similar to Barrera in terms of the lack of size, power and speed – In other words, a perfect opponent for Khan to fight.
Another option for Khan would be Michael Katsidis (25-2, 21 KOs), who mentioned after his 7th round stoppage win over Jesus Chavez last Saturday night that he’d be interested in fighting Khan. However, Katsidis wants to fight a rematch first with 37-year-old Joel Casamayor (36-4-1, 22 KOs) before fighting Khan.
Katsidis was stopped in the 10th round by Casamayor in March 2008. At the time of the stoppage, Katsidis had a narrow lead. It’s doubtful that Katsidis will beat Casamayor in a rematch, though, so that effectively takes Katsidis off the table as any kind of future opponent for Khan.
Katsidis would be too dangerous of an opponent for Khan to fight with his history of having a glass jaw. Khan might be better off looking in a different direction rather than risking another knockout loss on his record.
Khan has said that he’s interested in getting a rematch with Colombian Breidis Prescott, but that’s not a fight that Amir will be allowed to take by his management. Although Khan might want to take the fight to try and restore some of his lost credibility as a fighter, I can’t see his promoter allowing him to take such a risky fight given that he was knocked out in the 2nd round by Prescott last time.
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