By Chris Williams: Rather than pay World Boxing Organization lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis or John Murray the money they were asking for to fight on July 31st, the 23-year-old Khan will instead bypass that date and wait around to see if his promotional company Golden Boy Promotions and set up a fight between the winner of the July 31st clash between Juan Diaz and Juan Manuel Marquez. Under normal circumstances, Khan would probably have very little chance to fight Marquez if he emerges as the winner of this fight, because his management has already rejected a fight with the bigger.

Khan fights in a division above Marquez and isn’t as well known yet in the United States compared to Marquez. However, Golden Boy also promotes Marquez, and they might be able to convince Marquez to take the fight this time if they’re willing to pay him well. They obviously won’t be able to get him for cheap, so it’s going to cost them if they want to build up Khan’s status by matching him against an older fighter.

Marquez might not like the idea of being used to build up another fighter, because it is something that he may feel is an insult if Golden Boy doesn’t handle this correctly. Marquez has had an incredible career, winning titles in the featherweight, super featherweight and the lightweight divisions. Marquez has been the real deal for years, and hasn’t ducked anyone or been steered around opponents.

But what he is, though, is an aging fighter who probably isn’t nearly as well suited for the lightweight division compared to the featherweight and super featherweight divisions. This would give Khan a big advantage in youth, speed and size. It would likely be enough for him to beat Marquez.

The unfortunate part is that the win might not tell you much about Khan’s ability because of Marquez’s age and his smaller size. But it would give Khan another name on his resume and a victory that the casual boxing fans would likely be impressed with, as long as the television analysts don’t point out too much the age and size disparity between Khan and Marquez too much.

In an article at The Bolton News, Khan’s father, Shah, said “We are hoping that a deal will be struck shortly for Amir to fight the winner [of Diaz-Marquez]. It will be a tough fight for Amir, but a really good test against boxers who have been former world champions.” Golden Boy appears to be taking their time in putting Khan in with better fighters from his own weight class, because there was talk of Khan facing the best fighters in the light welterweight division after he beat Paulie Malignaggi on May 15th, but he’s now being positioned towards lightweights.

38-year-old Joel Casamayor, who had been fighting at lightweight up until recently, is another opponent that Khan could possibly be matched against if Khan doesn’t end up fighting the winner of the Diaz vs. Marquez bout. Both Katsidis and Murray are lightweights. Obviously, Golden Boy wants to match Khan up with the best fighters available, but they also need to ensure that he stays upright and doesn’t get knocked out again like he did when he was put in with a big puncher in a loss to Breidis Prescott.

It could be that by putting Khan in with lightweights, who are forced to come up in weight to fight him, rather than Khan moving down, he has a better chance of winning and looking good compared to if he was put in with a dangerous light welterweight from his own weight class.