By William Mackay: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer wants World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) to fight 36-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO’s). In an article by Ron Lewis at Timesonline.co.uk, Schaefer says “We could do a split bill for television with Amir fighting in the UK and then go across to [Juan] Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz at Mandalay Bay. That would be some double header. I would then like to see the winner of Marquez-Diaz fight face Amir. He has the style Americans love and he can be a big star in the U.S.”

Schaefer wants to match the 23-year-old Khan against WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (27-2, 22 KO’s) on the same night that Marquez fights Diaz. This, in effect, would force Marquez’s hand in having to fight Khan if Amir fights for Katsidis’ WBO interim title and doesn’t force the Australian to come up in weight to fight him. Golden Boy Promotions previously wanted to match Marquez against Khan earlier this year, but Marquez didn’t show interest in taking that fight. However, if Khan beats Katsidis, then the 36-year-old Marquez would have little choice but to fight Khan if he wanted to hold onto his title. If Khan doesn’t fight for Katisidis’ WBO interim title, then it’s going to take some persuading by Schaefer to get Marquez to take the fight with Khan.

You can understand why Marquez might not be interested in fighting the taller, faster and younger Khan. On the surface, it would appear that Marquez is being used to make a name for the younger Khan. If Khan could get a scalp against the older Marquez, he would gain from it, even though this wouldn’t be the prime version of Marquez that Khan would be fighting. Khan already beat 36-year-old Marco Antonio Barrera last year by a 5 round technical decision in March 2009. Barrera had lost two out of his last four fights going into the Khan fight and had only recently moved up in weight from the super featherweight division to lightweight.

It’s unknown why Schaefer is looking to match Khan against lightweights like Marquez and Katsidis when Khan is talking about wanting to be the best fighter in the light welterweight division. What good is it for Khan to be fighting smaller lightweights when he’s supposed to be trying to make a name for himself at light welterweight?

Schaefer thinks that Khan’s victory over Paulie Malignaggi last weekend will make him a bigger star in the UK for some reason. Schaefer says “His performance will have made him [Khan] an ever bigger star in the UK because they have seen him dominate an American fighter in his own backyard on his U.S. debut. This is really something the British can be proud of.” Schaefer is right about the British boxing fans being proud of Khan beating Malignaggi. However, I don’t think Khan has convinced all of them that he’s the second coming of Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. just yet after beating the hand-picked Malignaggi. I would like to think that fans have a little more critical eye than that and can see this for what it was – a fight against a non-dangerous opponent for Khan. If that’s all it takes for Khan to become a bigger star, then he doesn’t need to be bothered with facing the likes of Timothy Bradley, Marcos Maidana, and Devon Alexander because he would have it made in being put in with aging Americans with zero power.

But I think Schaefer is wrong. Khan needs to step it up and it’s disappointing that Schaefer is looking to match Khan with smaller fighters instead of fighters in his current weight class. I would have no problem if Khan was fighting exclusively at lightweight, but he’s not. This is a move to go after fighters that are smaller than Khan, who they think he can beat.

“First impressions count and that was a first impression to be proud of,” Schaefer says. I don’t agree. I wasn’t impressed with the opponent picked for Khan and I don’t think he looked all that great either.