By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) revealed a strategy of picking fighters on the downsides of their careers in an interview at GQ magazine. Khan, 23, said “You have to know the best time to have these big fights in your career. If you look at Oscar De La Hoya, he fought all the best fighters when they were on the way downhill, and not at their best. I want to catch these guys when they have come off their peak. But I have to be careful because there might be a younger version of me coming up who wants to do exactly the same to me.”

Brilliant strategy, Amir! I guess this is why Khan picked 35-year-old Marco Antonio Barrera to fight last year instead of one of the more dangerous top contenders in the division and why Khan has decided to face the light hitting Paulie Malignaggi next rather than the more dangerous Marcos Maidana.

Malignaggi may not be all that old at 29, but he’s got zero power and doesn’t seem to be a real factor in the light welterweight division now, other than serving as a contender and gatekeeper. It’s disappointing to see Khan admitting how he’s picking his opponents, though, because you’d like to think he’s going after top fighters that will be a serious challenge for him, not guys that are on the slide.

Some people might say that Malignaggi has slipped a bit in the past couple of years, but he never had the power to begin with and probably would have never been much of a threat for Khan. I’m really hoping that Khan doesn’t hand pick opponents his entire career, shooting for older or weaker punching fighters in order to find success and fame. But I judging from his comments on his selection process for fights, I think it’s something we might end up seeing in the future.

Khan has faced precious few fighters that you would consider as a real threat to him. Andriy Kotelnik, the former WBA light welterweight champion, had zero power and a lot of people saw him as the weakest of the light welterweights champions at the time that Khan picked him to fight. Khan could have gone after one of the other light welterweight champions but instead chose Kotelnik, who he previously had admitted that he didn’t think was a good fighter.

Other than Kotelnik, Khan has faced Breidis Prescott, who stopped Khan in one round, the little known Dmitri Salita and a number of mostly obscure fighters. Boxing fans were hoping that Khan would step up and fight WBA light welterweight interim champion Maidana, but instead Khan chose Malignaggi to fight. Precious few people think that Khan will beat Maidana if they ever fight, yet Khan is already talking about wanting to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

Those fighters, you would assume, would come after Khan has beaten the likes of Maidana, Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander, the top light welterweights in the division. But in looking at Khan’s comments about how he picks his opponents, I’m not sure that he’ll fight those guys. Their all young and in the prime of their careers right now, so I doubt that Khan will be facing them.