By William Mackay: In looking at UK fighters World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) and WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s), I couldn’t help but notice all the things that they have in common with one another. It’s actually kind of eerie how much they have in common. Both fighters have weak chins and are susceptible to being knocked out against big punchers. Both are considered unproven at their weight classes. Both are considered by many to be carefully protected fighters.

Both have fast hands and good power, and both are probably the most popular fighters in their respective divisions. The question is whether they will stay the popular fighters when and if they’re finally matched against the very best in the division. As most people already know, being the most popular fighter doesn’t always mean that you’re the best fighter in your division.

While there’s some boxing fans that think Khan could be the best at light welterweight, I’d have to put them in the minority. Overall, the general consensus is that either Timothy Bradley or Devon Alexander is the best at light welterweight.

I’m sure that WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana would have something to say about this, because he’s never really been beaten. His only loss, a 12 round split decision to Andriy Kotelnik in 2009, was a controversial one because it took place in Germany and many people who saw the fight felt that Maidana won the fight easily.

But Khan could erase the image that some people have of him being a glass-jawed, protected, over-hyped and overrated fighter if he were to start taking on guys like Maidana, Alexander and Bradley in the next year instead of fighting guys like Paulie Malignaggi, and going after lightweights like Michael Katsidis and Juan Manuel Marquez.

If Khan ends up matched against lightweights for the remainder of 2010, I would see this as a step backwards in his career and a move that would make boxing fans feel even more that Khan is being carefully matched against guys they think he can beat rather than put in competitive fights that he could lose.

Boxing fans want to see Khan fight Maidana. Instead we got to see Khan matched against a weak puncher Malignaggi. Now that Malignaggi is out of the way, Khan is all of a sudden showing interest in fighting Maidana. The only problem there is that Maidana has a serious back injury and no way will he be ready to fight Khan by July 31st, which is when Khan wants to fight again.

Haye has faced mostly older fighters since moving up to the heavyweight division. We heard him calling out the Klitschko brothers until we were frankly sick of it, and then watched Haye fight 38-year-old Monte Barrett, 38-year-old John Ruiz, 36-year-old Nikolay Valuev and 33-year-old Tomasz Bonin instead of the Klitschko brothers. Haye was stopped in the 5th round by Carl Thompson in 2004.

Thompson was easily the best opponent of Haye’s career. Haye went life and death with short 5’10” Jean Marc Mormeck in 2007. Haye has since beaten Enzo Maccarinelli, a 6’4” cruiserweight with a weak chin, and then moved up to heavyweight to start beating a string of older fighters while oddly calling out the Klitschko brothers. Haye hasn’t gotten close to fight any of the Klitschkos. It now looks like he’ll be fighting Audley Harrison next instead of Wladimir Klitschko.