By William Mackay: In the news yesterday, The Sun reported that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, speaking about World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan, said “A fight against [Juan Manuel] Marquez is a breakthrough as he is one of the best and Mexico’s No 1 active fighter. Once he [Khan] wins against Marquez, there is the possibility of a fight against Zab Judah – and then [Floyd] Mayweather Jr.” Nothing was said about Khan having to fight WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana, who the WBA had ordered Khan to fight.
Many boxing fans had predicted for the past month that Khan would avoid taking the fight against Maidana because of his huge power. It’s hard to imagine that the WBA will allow Khan to fight three other opponents – Marquez, Judah and Mayweather – without Khan facing Maidana in between one of those fights. But even beyond that issue, what has Khan done to deserve to face Marquez, Judah and Mayweather in consecutive fights, even if Schaefer can put those fights together.
I don’t see anything on Khan’s resume that would make me think he deserves to fight even Judah, let alone Marquez and Mayweather. Khan’s best wins of his career have come against an old 35-year-old Marco Antonio Barrera, who Khan beat by a 5 round technical decision, Andriy Kotelnik, Michael Gomez, Dmitriy Salita, and Martin Kristjansen.
Those are certainly good fighters, but are they the kind of opposition that would lead to Khan being put in with excellent fighters like Marquez, Judah and Mayweather. I just don’t see how Khan can deserve to be put in with fighters like Mayweather based on the wins that Khan has chalked up during his short five year career.
Khan has a Silver Medal in the 2004 Olympics, but that’s still not that big of a deal that should allow him to get big fights like this. We have tons of fighters with Gold Medals and they’re not being given big fights like this. And Khan’s resume is way too shallow for me to be given big fights against Marquez, Mayweather and Judah. Khan was flattened in the 1st round in 2008 against Breidis Prescott in 2008.
Khan never attempted to avenge his defeat to Prescott. You would think that Khan should at least have tried to avenge that defeat in order to move forward against bigger named opponents. And if Khan doesn’t face the hard hitting Maidana in his next fight or the one after that, it will surely cause some boxing fans to see Khan as a cherry picker.
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