By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (20-1, 15 KO’s) will be fighting for the World Boxing Association title on Saturday night against champion Andriy Kotelnik (31-2-1, 13 KO’s) at the M.E.N Arena, in Manchester, England. At first glance, it’s difficult to see how Khan deserves to be fighting for a world title because he’s yet to beat a quality fighter that wasn’t somehow cut up or just plain old, like in the case of his one victory over the hand picked 35-year-old Marco Antonio Barrera.

Given that Khan is fighting for a title, I would have much preferred he had not taken the back door into the title by facing soft opponents like Barrera and Osin Fagan in his last two fights. Ideally, Khan should have at least proved that he’s capable of beating a good lightweight or light welterweight like Marcos Rene Maidana, Urbano Antillon, Mike Alvarado, Yuri Romanov, Anthony Peterson, Victor Cayo, Randall Bailey or Nate Campbell. At least we’d know whether Khan has the chin to take a quality fighter’s shots and not an old former super featherweight in Barrera.

We know that Khan looks good against the European fighters that he’s been put in with, but to be pushed from the likes of Fagan, Michael Gomez and Graham Earl into a fight against a champion like Kotelnik, 31, seems wrong to me and kind of reminds me of British cruiserweight David Haye getting a shot against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko without having to work his way into a title shot by fighting two or three top 10 opponents.

I hope this isn’t a growing trend with British fighters getting shots at titles without properly having to prove that they belong in their with a champion. Oh well, I guess Khan’s preparation, or lack thereof, will be on his head this Saturday night. If he has the talent, then it might not matter that he leap-frogged over arguably more deserving light welterweight contenders like Maidana.

Of course, I kind of doubt that Khan will elect to hold down the belt for any length of time because it would mean that he’d have to face a slugger like Maidana and that wouldn’t be a good thing for the glass-jawed Khan. Expect for Amir to do a lot of hit and run action on Saturday night.

You can forget about Freddie Roach’s prediction about Khan throwing a lot of body shots. That isn’t going to be happening, because Roach won’t want to risk Khan’s fragile chin getting hit with something big from Kotelnik. It’s going to be pure running from Khan the entire 12 rounds against Kotelnik. I think Khan has a good chance of beating Kotelnik if he can keep moving the entire time. It won’t be easy but he’s young enough to pull it off.

A victory over Kotelnik won’t make Khan suddenly one of the most popular fighters in the boxing world, no matter what Roach has been saying about that. The boxing public knows that Khan and Roach are doing by having him fight Kotelnik, who is arguably the weakest of the light welterweight champions. There’s a reason why Khan is fighting Kotelnik rather than WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, namely because Khan would be in big trouble against him just as he would against Edwin Valero and Juan Manuel Marquez.

The easy path has been chosen for Khan. So, he hasn’t had to work his way through the top light welterweight contenders to get this shot and he’s chosen what many boxing experts perceive to be the weakest of the light welterweight champions.

That’s not exactly something that is going to impress boxing fans. For Khan to get the popularity that Roach has been dreaming of, it’s going to take a much bigger win than Kotelnik for that to happen. Ricky Hatton, who Khan wants to fight next, isn’t at the level where Khan can get much of a career boost should he beat him. Most people see Hatton as a shot fighter, someone who should retire after being knocked out in the 2nd round by Manny Pacquiao.

There’s nothing heroic in fighting a fighter like Hatton at this point in his career. In effect, it would be the same cherry picking that Khan did with his fight with Marco Antonio Barrera, who had lost two out of his last four fights at the time that Khan fought him.

It was pure cherry picking from Khan in it’s finest form. If Khan wanted to impress some people and open some eyes, he should have attempted to avenge his 1st round knockout defeat at the hands of Breidis Prescott instead of fighting an old washed up Barrera. That fact that he didn’t is very telling.

I can’t give Khan any credit if he beats Kotelnik on Saturday night, because for the fact that he’s chosen the weakest of the champions to fight. Khan should have worked his way through the ranks like the rest of the fighters have to do and then taken on the best in the division like Bradley.