By Eric Thomas: In an article at The Sun American promoter Gary Shaw, the promoter of World Boxing Organization light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, says “I tried to make a fight between Amir Khan and Timothy Bradley. His Promoters Golden Boy Promotions said ‘absolutely no chance, no way.’ Shaw went on to say “The reason why Amir Khan refuses to fight [WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos] Maidana is he’s scared. He’s scared of Timothy Bradley.”

Khan, 23, is looking to be matched against boxing great Juan Manuel Marquez in a fight that would take place on May 15th. Golden Boy Promotions, the company that promotes Khan, is looking to make a huge star out of him and want to put him in with the best known fighter available for Khan’s debut fight in the United States. You certainly can’t blame Golden Boy Promotions for wanting to do that.

It’s actually the smart thing to do. Khan probably gains little by fighting Maidana or Bradley, neither of which is well known by casual boxing fans. The money wouldn’t likely be there for either of those fights as compared to a bout against the well known Marquez. The unfortunate fact of the matter is Marquez is a better known fighter than Maidana and Bradley, which explains the reason why Golden Boy is going after a fight with Marquez rather than Bradley or Maidana.

At the same time, Bradley and Maidana, because of their size and power, would present a real threat that they could wind up beating Khan. At 23, Khan is still growing as a fighter and probably doesn’t belong in the same ring with fighters like Bradley and Maidana at this point in his career.

Khan still has a lot of time to grow and in two or three more years, he could be ready for tough challenges like the kind that Maidana and Bradley present, but right now this is the wrong time to be putting a green fighter like Khan in with those kinds of fighters. Marquez is a different case. Marquez is older at 36, hasn’t looked good since moving up to the lightweight division last year, is smaller than Khan, and is coming off a poor performance against Floyd Mayweather last year in a 12 round losing effort in September.

Shaw says “I believe Amir Khan is a fraud. I’ll believe it until he fights Tim Bradley.” Shaw may be waiting awhile for that to happen. Golden Boy is hoping to match Khan up with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the near future, and will be looking to put Khan in with another older fighter like Zab Judah after the Marquez bout.
Khan captured the WBA light welterweight title last year with a lopsided 12 round decision over champion Andriy Kotelnik in July. Most recently, Khan destroyed Dmitri Salita in a 1st round TKO in Khan’s first defense of his WBA title. The WBA want Khan now to defend his title against WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana, a fighter with huge power and a high pressure offense.