By William Mackay: Two time world champion Joel Casamayor (37-4-1, 22 KO’s) is predicting dire circumstances for his July 31st opponent WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s), saying in an article at The Sun, “I am going to knock out Amir Khan, dead. I am a four-time world champion in two different weight classes and I am going to prove he’s a nobody.”

Casamayor was selected over a number of other possible opponents in both the lightweight and junior welterweight division, including over WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis. The choice of Casamayor hasn’t been a popular one unfortunately for Khan, as his boxing fans and critiques were expecting more from Khan at this point in his career.

By fighting the 38-year-old Casamayor, Khan is opening himself up to more criticism that he’s being carefully managed in order to get him into a huge mega fight without having faced any real tests on the way up. It’s hard to defend Khan when he faces guys that nearing 40, however, like Casamayor and 36-year-old Marco Antonio Barrera, who Khan faced last year.

Khan is talking about wanting to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. by next year some time. He’s also talking about wanting to fight all the top light welterweights and unify the titles. Thus far it’s been only talk, as Khan’s last five opponents are as follows: Paulie Malignaggi, Dmitry Salita, Andriy Kotelnik, Marco Antonio Barrera and Oisen Fagan – none of them really big punchers or even close to that.

Before that, Khan was knocked out in one round by Breidis Prescott, a big puncher and the last puncher that Khan has been put in with.

Casamayor’s manager Luis DeCubas says “July 31 is the date we’re fighting Amir. The money hasn’t been squared 100 per cent but we’re working on that now.” It will be interesting to learn what Casamayor gets for this fight, because you would have to assume that it’s not going to be a whole lot because Khan has been complaining about his opponents seeing him as a cash cow and asking for a lot of money for the privilege of fighting him. But Khan’s going to find out soon that you get what you pay for. If he wants a good opponent, then he’s going to have to pay them bigger money.

It’s unknown how much Casamayor has left in the tank at this point in his career. He was stopped by Juan Manuel Marquez in the 11th round in September 2008, and has fought once since that time, beating Jason Davis by an eight round decision last year. Casamayor looked good against Marquez early in the fight but then faded in the later rounds and wasn’t up for it when Marquez put it into overdrive in the 11th. Casamayor looked so-so in stopping Katsidis in the 10th round in March 2008. Casamayor was hit a lot in the fight, hurt but then came on in the 10th to stop Katsidis. Had it not been for the knockout, Casamayor looked to be on his way to losing the fight by a decision.