By Jason Kim: Lightweight contender Amir Khan (20-1, 15 KOs) could find himself soon as Britain’s number #1 fighter if he can defeat World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik on June 27th, and then pick up a couple of wins over some big named opponents like Edwin Valero or even possibly Ricky Hatton. Even if Hatton isn’t interested in fighting Khan because of their friendship, I think Khan is ready to push Hatton out of the way and take over as the number #1 fighter in the UK.
No offense to fighters like David Haye or Carl Froch, those two don’t seem to draw the big numbers in Britain that Khan does. That, of course, could change if Haye gets lucky and sweeps the Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko in the next three bouts, but that seems more like a pipe dream rather than anything shaped in reality.
More likely, Haye gets buried by Wladimir in a couple of rounds in their fight on June 20th, and then is forced to slink away and spend the rest of his days as a possible gate keeper in the heavyweight division. Froch could also make it big in Britain if he can beat the likes of Lucian Bute, Andre Ward and Mikkel Kessler.
However, that doesn’t seem likely either. Froch looks good enough to lose to all three of them by lopsided decisions and perhaps knocked out by one or two of them. Beating even one of them would be like Froch winning a lottery as far as I’m concerned because he just doesn’t seem to be in their league as a fighter.
Hatton, 30, who stopped in a vicious 2nd round knockout by Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd, doesn’t look as if he has much more left in him other than maybe one more fight if that. The way that Hatton was knocked out against Pacquiao, and the way that he has been hurt in three of his last four fights, would seem to indicate that Hatton is at the end of his career.
If Hatton is really careful fights strictly soft competition, then I can see him stretching out his career for a while longer. However, he’d be under constant pressure to step it up against a quality opponent and he would probably fold under the pressure if enough money is waived under his snoot.
Hatton will probably be destroyed against the first good ‘B’ quality fighter that he faces. I wouldn’t even consider ever putting him in with an ‘A’ level fighter like Timothy Bradley, Kendall Holt or Junior Witter, because bad things would happen to Hatton.
So I expect that Hatton will choose to retire rather than fighting in a much more diminished capacity than he’s been accustomed to. This leaves only Khan as the biggest star in Britain. Kell Brook may someday develop, but I can’t see him as anything more than a local fighter. The same for Frankie Gavin and James DeGale, both of whom are good fighters but seem to be lacking something.
Freddie Roach is going to have to come up with a way for Khan to beat the bigger punchers in the lightweight and light welterweight division, but Khan’s chin is the key to his ultimate success. If Roach can teach Khan how to protect himself better so that he’s only hit occasionally, then Khan could end up winning titles in both the lightweight and light welterweight divisions and holding them for a considerable amount of time.
If Khan can be a champion for a couple of years or more believe me, he’ll be the biggest thing in Britain by far. Who knows? If Khan can get wins over a few big named like Edwin Valero, Nate Campbell and Bradley, Khan will make boxing fans forget all about Hatton.
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