By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan’s promoter Frank Warren is intrigued with a potential unification bout against WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (25-0, 12 KO’s). However, Warren prefers that the fight take place next year from now when Khan has built his name more. That’s a good thing for Khan, because Warren is correct that the fight wouldn’t mean as much now as it will a year from now when U.S. audiences are more aware of who Khan is.
Additionally, Khan, only 22, would likely have serious problems against a skilled fighter like Bradley, who has more experience over top level opposition than Khan does. Bradley has wins over Junior Witter, Edner Cherry, Miguel Vazquez (the fighter who recently defeated Breidis Prescott in a one-sided 10-round decision), Kendall Holt and Nate Campbell.
Those are pretty good names on Bradley’s resume. In contrast, Khan only has a 5th round technical decision win over an old battle scared, undersized Marco Antonio Barrera and a win over Andriy Kotelnik. Khan has been pretty much spoon fed his entire pro career with a lot of soft opposition. The win over Kotelnik would mean much more if he was considered to the top fighter in the light welterweight division. However, Kotelnik isn’t perceived that way by most boxing experts.
At best, Kotelnik might be a top eight fighter in the light welterweight division. He’s a good fighter, but there are a lot of other fighters out there like Bradley, Kendall Holt, Marcos Maidana (who appeared to beat Kotelnik in their fight in Germany last year), Victor Ortiz, Devon Alexander, Randall Bailey and Junior Witter (already beat Kotelnik). This kind of takes the air out of Khan’s recent accomplishment in beating Kotelnik. Although Khan beat Kotelnik, Amir picked a weaker fighter who probably didn’t belong as a champion in the first place.
Bradley is the real deal and has loads of talent, speed and decent power. I can see why Khan and Warren would want to fight him. However, at this point the fight would be a huge mismatch regardless of what training tactics that Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach comes up with. Right now, Bradley is simply a better fighter than Khan with a much better chin, more aggression and speed that is about the same. The only advantage that Khan would have in this fight would be his height and reach.
That would be quickly neutralized by Bradley and Khan would find himself having to exchange at close quarters with Bradley, a skilled in fighter. I really don’t think Khan will be much improved in a year from now. If Warren wants Khan to fight the likes of Bradley, he needs to be thinking a three to five year plan. Khan isn’t even close to being ready to beat a fighter like Bradley.
They could fight, of course, but Khan would get destroyed and probably knocked out. If Warren wants Khan to fight Bradley, he needs to use a stepwise progression for Amir before doing so. I would try to put Khan in with fighters like Bailey, Maidana, Ortiz, Witter, Holt and Alexander before I would even think of putting Khan in with a talented fighter like Bradley.
Unfortunately, I don’t have much faith in Khan beating any of those fighters right now. I think Khan could run from Maidana for the full 12 rounds, and maybe clinch him enough to get a win, but that would be Khan’s only chance of winning that fight. Holt, Alexander, Ortiz and Bailey would all probably knock Khan out at this point.
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