By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) could be matched against a couple of lightweights in his next two fights if his promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions has his way. Khan, 23, instead of being pitted against dangerous light welterweights in his division, would possibly be facing lightweights Michael Katsidis, Joel Casamayor or the winner of the Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz match on July 31st. It wouldn’t be so much of an issue if Khan takes on these fighters at lightweight, but I seriously doubt that’s going to happen.
Right now, Khan is the fighter that Golden Boy is trying to groom to be a future mega star and it’s unlikely they’re going to have Khan strip off weight to get down to lightweight. With the big money they have backing Khan, it’s likely that these fighters will have to move up in weight to take on Khan. With a size and reach advantage, Khan would have a good chance of beating anyone of those fighters unless Katsidis can catch up to Khan and tag his weak chin. However, even if Khan does beat these lightweights, what will happen when he’s finally matched tough against a hard hitting or highly skilled light welterweight?
I would think that there would be an excellent chance that Khan would lose by knockout. Then boxing fans would feel cheated, thinking that Khan had been hyped and put in with smaller, older fighters and ones that couldn’t punch in order to preserve his chin. I have a feeling that this is exactly what will happen when Khan is eventually put in with a tough fighter. Khan may do really well against a series of lightweights that Golden Boy put him in with, but it won’t do much of anything in helping Khan prepare for bigger fighters in his own weight class.
In that case, Khan could take a beating and end up getting exposed. However, I think it would be much better for Khan to take the tough fights at light welterweight so he can improve rather than being fed smaller lightweights after being the pillow punching Paulie Malignaggi recently. It would be much better for Golden Boy Promotions to be matching Khan up against good fighters in his own weight class rather than having smaller guys selected for him. It isn’t as if Khan will be able to make a career out of fighting lightweights. Eventually, he’s going to have to start fighting quality fighters – read: ones that can punch and fight – if Khan wants to prove how good he is.
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