By Chris Williams: With only two weeks to go before his huge match-up against World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik on July 18th at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, Amir Khan (20-1, 15 KO’s) predicts great things ahead of him if he can beat Kotelnik, and thinks that he can be the next big star in Britain if he can get past the 31-year-old Kotelnik, according to Sky Sports.

Not short on confidence, the 22-year-old Khan says “I know I can beat Kotelnik.” Let’s hope so for Khan’s sake, because if he loses then he can forget about his dreams of being the next big star inn Britain. Khan says he wants a fight with Ricky Hatton, and feels that it will be a huge fight that the UK would want to see happen.

That could be true, but Khan will not only have to beat Kotelnik, but will have to do it in a convincing manner for the British public to want to see Khan and Hatton go at it in the ring. If Khan struggles against Kotelnik and gets knocked down two or three times, I kind of doubt that the boxing public in England would want to bother seeing Amir fight Hatton. It would be a fight where there would be a high potential that Khan would be knocked out.

While British boxing needs a new star now that Joe Calzaghe has retired and Hatton is getting up there in age, it’s unclear whether Khan can move in to be the guy. Beating Kotelnik might “open a lot of doors” for Khan in the short run, but unless he has the chin needed to beat fighters like Hatton, Timothy Bradley and Marcos Maidana, those doors may be quickly slammed shut in the face of Khan.

Now I think Amir may have a good chance at beating Kotelnik, who probably should have lost to Maidana in his last fight in February, I don’t have the same feelings about fights against Bradley, Maidana and especially Breidis Prescott.

Unless Khan can beat those fighters, his dream of being the next big think in the UK will be nothing more than a pipe dream. A fight against Hatton should be Khan’s next goal if he can get by Kotelnik, because once Khan is forced to start defending the WBA title against challengers, things become much more dicey for him.

Khan will have to hope that his chin will be able to take the shots of the light welterweight contenders who hit harder than the lightweight division that Khan is moving up from.

Khan thinks that when he eventually gets to his prime, whenever that is, he’ll be able to compete with fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez. I actually believe Khan and do think he’ll be able to compete with them.

However, by the time that Khan hits his prime years, which should be in another five to six years, Marquez will be 41 and Mayweather will be 38 or 39. I can certainly see Khan beating them at that point. However, if Khan makes the mistake of fighting them anytime before then, I don’t like his chances one bit.

Even taking those fighters out of the equation, Khan will have his hands full with Bradley, Maidana, Prescott, Kendall Holt, Victor Ortiz, Randall Bailey, Junior Witter, Devon Alexander, Nate Campbell, Juan Urango and Mike Alvarado.

Khan can possibly beat some or all of those guys, but I’m not certain about that unless his chin holds up to the pounding they will give him. These aren’t opponents that can be beaten with gimmicks like right hooks, catch weights or running that Freddie Roach could dream up. Khan will have to gut it out if he wants to beat those guys.