By Sean McDaniel: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) is looking to take on arguably the biggest name in his career by getting the winner of this Saturday’s lightweight title fight between WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan, 23, needs a big named opponent for him to continue to move forward in trying to become a big star in the United States. There are hopes that by taking on an older, smaller fighter like Marquez, the U.S. boxing public will become enamored with Khan and will want to purchase his fights on pay per view in high numbers like fans do with fights involving Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

Fighting someone like Marquez would be big help to Khan’s career, but without the risk of having to fight top fighters from his own weight class. Obviously, Khan is being positioned to win over the casual boxing fans, the ones that don’t have much knowledge about the sport. Many of the hardcore boxing fans aren’t pleased with how Khan has been matched against older fighters like Marco Antonio Barrera and now Marquez, as well as fighters with little power like Paulie Malignaggi. Fans of Khan say that this is a normal thing for up and coming fighters to do, and believe it would be crazy for Khan to be put in with the best fighters right now because of his relatively young age.

The one problem with that belief is that Khan is the current World Boxing Association light welterweight champion, not just a prospect or a contender. When you hold down a title, you’re expected to take on the best fighters in your division and not look to fight opponents in weight classes lower than your own. Boxing has changed a lot in recent years, and now it’s quite common for champions to select opponents – usually from divisions below their own – to fight. It’s one way of stacking the deck in your favor while at the same time being able to cherry pick a bigger name to fight.

It comes at the expense of the top contenders from their weight class, because it means that they’ve been skipped over by someone that isn’t even ranked in the top 15. For example, if Khan faces the winner of the Marquez-Diaz fight on December 11th, which is what Khan and HBO are hoping for, he will be facing someone that isn’t even ranked in the light welterweight division. Needless to say, that’s hardly fair if you’re one of the top contenders in the light welterweight division and have been working hard and waiting your turn to get a title shot for ages against Khan.

Khan should be able to beat either Diaz or Marquez based on his bigger size and better hand speed. That fight probably won’t be an issue for Khan. He has Marcos Maidana, the WBA light welterweight interim champion, waiting for his turn at fighting Khan. Maidana can only be avoided for so long before the WBA is going to have to force this fight, unless Khan and Golden Boy Promotions, Khan’s promoter, can pay Maidana to step aside for awhile so that Khan can fight the guys that he wants to.