By Jason Kim: Trainer Freddie Roach is interested in having his fighter World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan fight on the March 13th undercard of the huge mega bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao, according to The Mirror/ This is great news if Khan can somehow get put on that card, because the fight will be shown world wide and it would give Khan a lot of visibility if his fight winds up on television. Roach says “I would love for Amir to fight on the undercard of Manny’s next fight. Amir would be ready for March, no problem, for another world title defense.”
Khan didn’t even break a sweat in beating his mandatory challenger by a 1st round technical knockout last Saturday night. The fight was more like a quick exhibition than a real bout, because Khan came out so fast and had Salita immediately in trouble in the opening seconds of the bout. Who Khan would be matched up with is the question. Khan has a voluntary defense coming up, and will be able to pick and choose whom he wants to fight next.
Roach has this to say about potential opponents for Khan: “There are a lot of big names for him [Khan] now, here in Britain, and in the states. [Juan Manuel] Marquez is one, while [Jose Luis] Castillo is making a comeback and has told me he wants to fight Amir. The only guy I don’t want him [Khan] to fight is Manny [Pacquiao], and I want him to spar with him before Mayweather.”
The Castillo bout is less than an appealing an option, because Castillo has struggled in the past couple of years. Khan would get a name on his belt for beating Castillo, but like the win over a 35-year-old Marco Antonio Barrera, it would be a name that wouldn’t have much value because of the advanced age of Castillo. Like Barrera, Castillo is 35 and doesn’t appear to be the same fighter he once was.
Casual boxing fans won’t likely care who Khan fights because many of them haven’t heard about him in the United States, which is where the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will take place, but it still would be better for Khan if he faced a little younger fightr than Castillo if he wants to impress die hard boxing fans. If Khan fights Castillo, it would be the second older fighter he’s faced and he could quickly gain a reputation for fighting old codgers if Khan then goes ahead and fights 36-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez after that.
Roach wants to use Khan as a sparring partner for Pacquiao to prepare the Filipino star for his bout against Mayweather. Khan’s amazing hand speed makes him an appealing sparring partner to help prepare Pacquiao for Mayweather’s fast hands. Although Mayweather doesn’t fight anywhere near the same way as Khan. Mayweather tends to throw pot shots these days and doesn’t throw a lot of combinatiions like Khan.
Roach liked what he saw of Khan in Amir’s 1st round stoppage win over Salita last Saturday night, saying “He [khan] has the body to go up to 147 [welterweight], even 160 pounds [middleweight] in the long term.” Roach needs to settle down with his dreams until Khan at least fights a couple of good light welterweights. Khan still hasn’t fought any young talented lightweights and his competition at light welterweight consist of his 12 round win over Andriy Kotelnik and Salita, both Ukrainian and neither particularly fast of hand or powerful.
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