By Neo: The quick head shot and ensuing flurry which left the referee no choice but to shield Paulie Malignaggi and protect him from further punishment may not have answered all of our questions. Can Amir Khan’s chin stand up to a powerful, junior welterweight punch? Will exhilarating speed and good movement be enough to carry this young man to the top of his division? For answers to these questions, we will have to see how events unfold over the next few years. But that remarkably capable desecration of a gifted boxer (if never a hitter) did tell us one thing: Khan has landed in the USA.

To protest that this fight told us nothing about Khan’s vulnerabilities is to miss the point; at 23 years of age, profile-building is the name of the game. Should Khan choose to avoid big hitters his whole career, there will be cause for complaint, but as things stand, all indications point to a showdown with Marcos Maidana once his injury subsides. This is a fight that Khan must take, and his failure to do so will justifiably incur the wrath of critics across the boxing world. I pride myself on being an unbiased writer, and although I must state that I am a fan of Khan’s abilities, I acknowledge that the time must come for him to test himself against the best in his weight range.

But his fight on July 31st – just six or so weeks away now – is not one in which I believe we can reasonably demand Khan to begin risking his career. I hold this belief for two reasons. First and foremost, none of the other top Junior Welterweight contenders are doing it either. Devon Alexander, in taking on Andriy Kotelnik, is fighting a man whom Khan demonstrated to be very limited against speedy operators. Timothy Bradley is moving up in weight (understandably, I would say), and Maidana is injured. Why, then, should it fall to Khan to cut short his reputation-building when nobody else is? Secondly, I think that to expect a 23-year old to enter into life-and-death battles would be ill-advised. This goes for Alexander and Bradley too; going in against dangerous punchers with little or no reward is career suicide. The only life-or-death fights these guys should be taking are against each other, and that must happen for the good of boxing. Since that is not viable at the moment, we are left with the question of where Khan should go next.

With the dearth of talent at Lightweight (excluding Juan Manuel Marquez), to call up Joel Casamayor or Michael Katsidis seems illogical to me. Casamayor is not half the fighter he was, and Katsidis would struggle to land on Khan given the height differential. If I am correct in saying that the aim of the game for Khan (and quite rightly Alexander and Bradley too) should be to raise their stock a bit before they go head-to-head, why not move up to welterweight for one fight and steal Vyacheslav Senchenko’s WBA welterweight world title from him? Here we have a 32-year old Ukrainian who has fought no one of note in his entire career. In 30 fights, his only bout outside Eastern Europe was in Monaco where he was thoroughly unimpressive. What does a name like Senchenko do for your CV? This is a valid criticism. But the question is, presuming the only other option being explored is a bout against a blown-up lightweight, what will mean more: a win over a man everybody knows is past his prime and not even in his own division, or the glory of being a two-weight world champion at 23, irrespective of who you beat to get the belt?

Am I saying that Senchenko is the best fight out there? No. That is Alexander, Bradley or Maidana. But since all three are tied up, why not try to lure Senchenko? To be World Champion at two weights before his 25th birthday would give Khan major pulling power going into bouts against the big three at Junior Welter and, should he be fortunate enough to come out of it undefeated, he will have already taken the first step to riches at Welterweight too. It’s a thought, and one which in no way permits Khan to talk his way out of fighting the other big dogs in his weight class. Those fights must happen, period. But winning another world title in a new weight class in what is essentially a tune-up bout is not bad work…