By Jason Kim: World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) wants to go after WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (51-5-1, 37 KO’s) next rather than someone from his own weight class, like Timothy Bradley, Marcos Maidana and Devon Alexander.
Khan says the reason he’s picking out a smaller lightweight to fight is that he feels that Marquez is better known than the other top lightweights and is a better fighter. In an interview at theboxingtruth.com, Khan says “I think [Juan Manuel] Marquez is the bigger name [compared to the other top light welterweights]. I think he’s the toughest fighter of all of them. I think I could be the first guy, with my power and speed, to stop Marquez. I want to fight the big names and beat them in a style that they haven’t been beaten before. I want to fight all the top 140 pounders, but I think Marquez is probably better than all of them.”
Few boxing fans would likely agree with Khan’s belief that Marquez is better than fighters like Bradley and Alexander. Marquez may have beaten Juan Diaz last Saturday night by a one-sided 12 round decision, but Marquez looked tired already by the 3rd round and was pretty gassed out in the 11th and 12th.
It sounds like Khan is trying to build up Marquez in an effort to take the heat off of him for trying to get a fight against the smaller and older Marquez rather than the top light welterweights in the division. What better way than to say that Marquez is better than all the top light welterweights.
By saying that, Khan has an excuse for not fighting the top fighters from his own division. Khan probably should have taken on Maidana in his last fight in May. Instead, however, Khan took on the light hitting Paulie Malignaggi and ended up stopping him in the 11th.
After the fight, Khan said he wanted to go after the top light welterweights in the division. But now he’s targeting the 36-year-old Marquez rather than fighters from his own weight class, and many boxing fans find it peculiar that Khan is doing this.
It’s true Marquez is a bigger name than Alexander and Bradley right now, but he’s also about to turn 37 and fights in a division below Khan. Fans of Khan like to point out that Floyd Mayweather Jr. fought Marquez last year, and that it should be okay for Khan to target Marquez as well.
The problem is Khan hasn’t had a real tough opponent since being knocked out in the 1st round in 2008. Since that loss, Khan has fought the following fighters: Oisen Fagan, Marco Antonio Barrera, Andriy Kotelnik, Dmitriy Salita and Malignaggi.
None of those fighters were huge punchers and Barrera was an old 35. Fans would like to see Khan, at the very minimum, fight Maidana. If Khan fought and beat Maidana, then he could easily get away with targeting lightweights to fight for a while without taking a lot of criticism.
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