By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) is out of the hospital after a two-night stay due to a heavy fever that he suffered from following a trip to South Africa to watch England play against Germany in the World Cup soccer competition. Khan’s father, Shah Khan, says that Amir is fine after his release from the Beaumont Hospital in Bolton where he had been for a short stay to recover from the high fever. Khan, 23, will now rest and recover from the illness.
However, Khan plans on taking a trip to Las Vegas later this month to watch the lightweight title fight between WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan badly wants to fight the winner of that bout at light welterweight. Marquez, soon to be 37, apparently is said to want to move up in weight anyway to the light welterweight division, so this will possibly work out for Marquez.
Juan Manuel wants to fight a third bout with Manny Pacquiao and needs to be as near his weight as possible for the fight to have any chance of happening. Currently, Pacquiao is the WBO welterweight champion and is fighting at a very high level at that weight. Marquez didn’t look good at all in fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. at a catch weight of 144 last September. Marquez looked slow and too heavy to carry around that kind of weight.
If Marquez can’t carry 144 without losing speed and maneuverability, then his chances against the much younger 23-year-old Khan might not be so good. Marquez could end up losing to Khan and along with it a chance for a much bigger payday against Pacquiao down the line. It’s a gamble that Marquez would be taking in fighting the taller, younger and faster Khan.
Marquez would have a much chance of beating Khan if he was to have Khan come down to his weight, but it looks as if Khan has got the pull behind him in this fight and Marquez, the fighter with the much better accomplishments a pro, will have to be the one to do the moving. Once this fight is over with, there is hope that Khan will start to fight the best fighters in the light welterweight division, and show whether he has the talent to make it at that weight or not.
It’s hard to tell whether Khan has what it takes to be one of the best at that division because his opponents have not been the very best, unless you consider Dmitri Salita, Paulie Malignaggi and Andriy Kotelnik the cream of the crop.
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