By William Mackay: Trainer Freddie Roach says that WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (27-2, 22 KO’s) wanted too much money to fight World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s), according to the Telegraph.co.uk. Roach said “He [Khan] fought a great fight in New York against Paulie Malignaggi. He fought the right fight. If he does take the fight [against soon to be 39-year-old Joel Casamayor] on July 31st, he needs to get back over here and get in the gym this week. I hear they were talking to Katsidis but he wanted too much money. My view is Amir is ready for anyone.”

When Roach says Khan fought the “fight fight” against Malignaggi, he seems to have left out that Khan fought the right opponent as well. Malignaggi was tailor made for Khan going into this fight, something that wasn’t lost on many of the more knowledgeable boxing fans of the sport, because Malignaggi had very little to threaten Khan’s sometimes weak chin. This was an opponent picked exclusively for Khan to look good against, and have the danger of possibly getting dropped or knocked out. Khan looked good beating Malignaggi, to be sure, but he beat a guy that didn’t have to tools to expose Khan in the first place.

This is why it’s not a good thing to get excited about these kinds of wins for Khan, because he still hasn’t proven that he’s able to beat a puncher because he hasn’t been in with one since he was flattened in the 1st round two years ago by Breidis Prescott. If Golden Boy Promotions, Khan’s promotional company, match him against 39-year-old Casamayor next instead of the hard hitting Katsidis, then this trend of matching Khan against less than huge punchers will continue.

Casamayor can punch a little but he’s not a big puncher like Katsidis, is 39, hasn’t been all that active and was stopped in the 11th round in his last meaningful fight in 2008 by Juan Manuel Marquez. Roach says that Katsidis wanted too much money. That sounds plausible but it also could be a convenient excuse for not putting Khan in with Katsidis, who with his big power and good hand speed, would be a constant threat of taking Khan out if Katsidis landed anything at all.

Never the less, sooner or later Khan is going to have to be put in with good fighters like Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley, Marcos Maidana and Victor Ortiz. And when that time comes, I think Khan is going to struggle badly because it could be too huge of a step up from facing 39-year-old fighters, weak punchers and fighters that have no business being ranked at number #1.

Speaking about Alexander, Roach says “Who is Devon Alexander anyway? We’ve seen him on TV. I’ve seen him once and I didn’t see anything special.” Roach must be kidding himself, because Alexander has looked special and in my view he looks a lot better than Khan, and is facing better opposition than him at the same age. I’d like to see Khan face him but I’m not holding breath on that happening for many years, if ever. Talking about Maidana, the WBA light welterweight interim fighter, and the one that almost everyone has been wanting Khan to fight for ages, Roach says “Marcos Maidana we can take on any day of the week.” I kind of doubt it. I don’t believe that Khan can beat Maidana and I don’t believe they will fight him. Maidana, a huge puncher and a high pressure fighter, is even more dangerous than Prescott, and we already saw what happened to Khan in that fight against Prescott.