By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Frank Warren hinted earlier today about a unification bout between WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan and WBO champion Timothy Bradley. Khan, 22, recently defeated Ukrainian Andriy Kotelnik by a 12 round decision last month on July 18th to win Kotelnik’s World Boxing Association title.

Many people figured that Khan would continue to take the easy path by defending his title against his number #1 challenger, little known Dimitry Salita, rather than fight a unification bout against one of the other champions or take on a knockout threat like Marcos Maidana.

This is why many boxing fans and experts were somewhat shocked today when Warren hinted at a unification bout with the 25-year-old Bradley. And while I’d really be happy to see this fight materialize, I don’t think Khan will end up fighting Bradley. In fact, I don’t see Khan ever fighting Bradley, period. Not now, not ever. However, I can see how it would be a good thing to have Khan’s name mentioned as possibly wanting to fight Bradley, because Timothy is the hot fighter right now and considered by many, including this writer, to be the best fighter in the light welterweight division.

I think Khan is a good serviceable fighter, too, but I don’t see him anywhere near the class of a fighter like Bradley. It would be a great fight if Warren and trainer Freddie Roach let Khan take the fight. I think it would be a good fight for Khan, win or lose. At least he’d be able to grow as a fighter even if he did end up getting dominated by Bradley.

This would be a good match up because Bradley isn’t a real physical fighter and not a huge puncher like Breidis Prescott, Kendall Holt and Marcos Maidana, so there would be less of a chance for Khan to get knocked out. If the fight came down to Bradley’s speed and boxing ability vs. Khan’s, I think Amir could win some rounds and make the fight close in the end.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think Khan would lose the fight but it wouldn’t be a fight where he would come out looking like a loser because he couldn’t probably make it close with his speed and movement. The best part of it all would be that Khan could erase some of the criticism about him dodging good fighters. Certainly, Bradley isn’t a big puncher like some of the other fighters in the light welterweight division, but he is considered to be the best of the bunch because of his all around skills and good chin.

This would be a great learning tool for Khan and would give him a lot of notoriety in the U.S., especially if he does down swinging for the fences. Just look at Alfredo Angulo. He was recently beaten by Kermit Cintron, but the boxing public doesn’t really care because Angulo gave it his all to the very end. That’s all Khan needs to do. Of course, if Khan ends up not fighting Bradley then Amir’s reputation as cherry picker will probably persist for a lot longer.

Unfortunately, I highly doubt that Khan’s team will let him anywhere close to a fighter like Bradley. Khan has a title, albeit a paper one and they’ll likely milk it for as long as they can with fights against Salita and an optional title defense before vacating the title in 2010 when faced with defending it against the likes of WBA interim champion Marcos Maidana.