By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan has signed with American promotional company Golden Boy Promotions, thus signaling that the 23-year-old Khan will be attempting to make a mark for himself in the United States where he currently trains with famous trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym, in Los Angeles, California. There are rumors that Khan will vacate his World Boxing Association light welterweight title and will go after a fight against former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi.

In this case, Malignaggi would be the more popular fighter in the U.S., because boxing fans here know little about Khan other than the hardcore fans. Of the hardcore fans, few of them appear to be interested in seeing Khan fight Malignaggi, judging by the negative comments about the rumors of the fight in the internet message boards.

It’s doubtful, though, that Golden Boy promotions will be willing to put Khan in with WBA interim champion Marcos Maidana (27-1, 26 KO’s), who Khan was supposed to be defending his title against next. The Argentinean fighter already burned Golden Boy once recently by stopping their highly prized prospect Victor Ortiz in the 6th round in June.

However, it will make Khan look bad in the eyes of knowledgeable boxing fans if he does decide to vacate his title to avoid facing Maidana. The only way I can see Khan not taking heat for this is if he goes after Ricky Hatton. Ricky wasn’t interested in fighting Khan in the past because Khan was promoted by Frank Warren, and Hatton wasn’t interested in fighting Khan under those circumstances unless he could have a part in the promotion of the fight.

Now, however, Hatton has no excuses to make for not fighting Khan other than he’s a personal friend of his. Hatton, 31, was knocked out in the 2nd round in his last fight against Manny Pacquiao in May. Hatton is looking to comeback in the next four to five months. However, Hatton has to take off the weight (a considerable amount) that he has put on since the loss to Pacquiao.

Once Hatton takes off the weight, he should be a viable option for Khan to face. Unfortunately, this is a fight that would likely have to take place in the UK rather than the United States for it to do really well. Khan isn’t known well enough for this bout to be considered a mega fight, and even if Khan does face and beat Malignaggi in the next two months, it still likely won’t be enough to make a star out of Khan.

For Amir to become a big name, he’s going to have to beat several good opponents in the variety of Devon Alexander, Kendall Holt and Timothy Bradley. Khan probably won’t impress boxing fans if he continues to roll over opponents like Dmitriy Salita, Andriy Kotelnik and Marco Antonio Barrera. Khan has to be put in with good fighters that are recognizable and who still have something left in the tank.