By William Mackay: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer has a back-up plan just in case WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez decides not to fight World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan on December 11th on HBO, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Schaefer would then substitute either Victor Ortiz or Marcos Maidana in Marquez’s case.

Both Ortiz and Maidana fight for Golden Boy Promotions, so putting the fight together would be a near cinch for Schaefer. Ortiz and Maidana both are eager to fight Khan and would jump at the chance at finally getting a shot at fighting him.

However, the fight would be taking place in Khan’s England rather than in the United States. Khan has taken some heat for choosing Marquez, a lightweight to fight instead of someone his own weight class. However, Golden Boy is trying to keep Khan winning and want to build up his popularity at the same time.

Khan, 23, has a better chance of continuing to rack up wins by taking on a smaller, older fighter like the 36-year-old Marquez compared to if he was fighting one of the top light welterweights in the division like Timothy Bradley or Devon Alexander.

If Khan does take on a substitute opponent, it’s hard to see Maidana getting the shot because he hits harder than any of the other light welterweights in the division and would have a very good chance of knocking Khan out and ending the hype machine. Khan would obviously continue to be popular if he was knocked out again, but it would mean that Khan would have to be brought along even more carefully than he already has been since being knocked flat by the hard hitting Breidis Prescott two years ago in 2008.

Since that fight, Khan has been kept clear of big punchers and has done well. A fight with Maidana would be throwing Khan back in the lion’s den and it would be a sink or swim fight. Golden Boy wouldn’t do it unless they felt that Khan had a good chance at winning the fight, but we already saw another Golden Boy fighter fail last weekend when Daniel Jacobs was stopped by Russian Dmitry Pirog.

Khan could end up getting knocked out as well. This is why I don’t see Golden Boy putting Khan in with Maidana unless the WBA is getting ready to strip Khan of his title and they’re not doing that yet. Khan will have to fight Maidana at some point unless some other fighter comes along and beats Maidana first. That would take the pressure off of Khan and he could then he wouldn’t have to fight Maidana.