By William Mackay: WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (27-2, 22 KO’s) is still open to fighting World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s), if Khan changes his mind about wanting to fight 39-year-old Joel Casamayor on July 31st instead. Speaking to East Side Boxing’s On the Ropes program, the 29-year-old Katsidis said “I think that’s a great with Amir Khan. He’s a promising fighter and of course he’s one of the best out there. He has the WBA world title at junior welterweight and I want to be prepared to fight anyone. So I’m excited about that fight, of course, and we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

Katsidis might be waiting a real long time if Khan and his promotional team Golden Boy Promotions does go ahead and fight the two-time former champion Casamayor instead. It would be a calculated pick if they fight him rather than the younger and more powerful Katsidis, because it’s pretty clear that Katsidis is the more popular fighter in the UK than Casamayor.

Khan wants his July 31st fight to take place in the UK rather than the United States, so it would sense for him and his promoters to pick the most popular fighter available for him to fight if he wants to wow his British fans that will be paying to see him fight. Casamayor obviously has a much more impressive resume than Katsidis has, but the problem for Casamayor is that all of that is in the past and he’s aged to the point where he’s probably not much of a threat to Khan.

I wouldn’t call Casamayor a toothless lion because we’ve already seen how vulnerable Khan can be if he gets hit hard. However, Casamayor has fought most of his career at super featherweight and only recently made the move up to lightweight late in his career. Casamayor has recently moved up in weight to the light welterweight division, but he looks too small for that weight class and doesn’t have the blazing hand speed or big power like some fighters do to overcome his limited size. He’s no Manny Pacquiao in the speed and power department and he would need to be to beat the young Khan.

Katsidis would seem to be the much better choice for Golden Boy to make for Khan to fight on July 31st. If the idea is to make Khan look as if he’s unbeatable, then I can understand why they would want to pit Khan against the 39-year-old Casamayor. After all, Khan will likely be able to soundly beat Casamayor with his youth alone. But if Golden Boy wants to start putting Khan in with the best young fighters in boxing, then Katsidis would seem like the better choice.

And even better choice than either of these two would be for Golden Boy to actually put Khan in with the best fighters in the light welterweight division rather than fighting an old guy like Casamayor. There’s got to be at least one or two top light welterweights that are available right now. Right now, I’d settle for Mike Alvarado or Lamont Peterson rather than seeing Khan put in with a near 40-year-old.