By William Mackay: On his Twitter page, World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) says he wants to fight WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (28-1, 27 KO’s) or lightweight Michael Katsidis (27-2, 22 KO’s) next. Khan says “I want Maidana. I just spoke with my promotional team. I told them get me the fight. People think Maidana is good. [Andriy] Kotelnik out-boxed him. I beat Kotelnik. [Victor] Ortiz, I also beat round two TKO in 2004. He’s [Maidana?] hard hitting, but very slow.” That sounds on well and good that Khan is calling out an injured Maidana. What does he expect him to do? Put on a back brace and go out and fight Khan like that? Maidana has a badly injured back that is keeping him out of the ring.
Who knows when Maidana’s back will be healed enough for him to fight? But by Khan calling out an injured fighter, it’s not exactly the kind of thing that inspires. I don’t know is calling the shots with Khan- him or his team. My guess is Khan has fighters that he wants to mix it up with, but his managerial team overrules his picks and goes for what they consider safer fights that pay more money. A fight between Maidana and Khan, even if it could be made, probably wouldn’t be as huge in the UK right now as a fight between Khan and Katsidis.
The reason is Katsidis has fought twice in the UK, destroying Graham Early and Kevin Mitchell – two popular fighters. That would seem like the smarter fight for Khan if he wants to get a better paying fight in England. However, if Khan wanted to win more respect from the hardcore boxing fans, then a fight against Maidana would be the way to go. The problem here is that Maidana is injured right now and no one knows when his back will be healed sufficiently for him to fight again. It could be a short while or it could take many months. Since Khan wants to get back in the ring again in July, Katsidis is obviously the way to go for that fight if he wants to make the most money and bring in a lot of fans in the UK.
Khan says “[Devon] Alexander vs. Kotelnik. And Timothy [Bradley] vs. some bum [Luis Carlos Abregu]. No one talks about them, and I’d beat their opponents in easily. I either want Maidana or Katsidis. If Alexander, Bradley and Maidana were honest about fight me, let’s get it on. I need an opponent and they all fighting bums instead. All the haters keep hating. It doesn’t affect me one bit. Compare my bank balance to Bradley, Alexander, Maidana, then tell me who’s king.”
Hopefully Khan isn’t mistaking having more money with being a better fighter than those guys. Khan has been matched against guys that he could do well against during his career and really hasn’t yet stepped it up to the level of Alexander, Maidana and Bradley as of yet in my view. He beat some guys, Kotelnik, Dmitry Salita and Paulie Malignaggi, that had no power to speak of and who were made for him. Khan’s biggest problem is with taking hard shots. He was knocked out by the one hard puncher he was put when he was stopped in the 1st round by Breidis Prescott in 2008. Khan hasn’t been matched against any other big sluggers since that fight took place.
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