By William Mackay: Former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch was telling it like it is in an interview by Geoffrey Ciani on East Side Boxing’s On the Ropes Boxing Radio program today. Froch had this to say about WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan: “At the minute, he’s hand picking his opponents and he’s not really impressing anybody…I’ve yet to name someone on his record that’s a top level fighter where I’m impressed with the win. That flattening by [Breidis] Prescott was certainly a bad one.”

Khan was knocked out in the 1st round by Prescott, but then failed to even try and avenge the defeat. Instead, Khan has been matched against five consecutive weak punchers until he was forced to fight WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) or else Khan would have been stripped of his title by the WBA. I have to say that I agree with Froch about the hand-picked opponents.

Instead of going after the best fighter among the light welterweight champions last year, Khan faces Andriy Kotelnik, who many people saw as the worst of the champions. Khan won the fight, but it seemed as if he fought Kotelnik simply because he was seen as a lesser threat than the other champions. Khan has also faced Paulie Malignaggi recently instead of Maidana or a better fighter. Khan said he chose Malignaggi because he’s better known in the U.S, which is where Khan wants to become a bigger star. However, Maidana has built a huge fanbase in the United States in the past year, and I’d venture to guess that he’s more popular than Malignaggi, even though Malignaggi has been shown on cable a lot more often than Maidana. However, Malignaggi’s fights haven’t been nearly as exciting as Maidana’s and it’s been mostly a frustrating experience watching Malignaggi.

Froch says “I’ve not seen much improvement under Freddie Roach [speaking about Khan] to be honest…The only major flaw Khan’s got is he’s got a glass jaw.” A weak chin is something that may cause Khan to get knocked out by Maidana in their fight on December 11th. I can see that happening unless Khan can run for 12 rounds without ever stopping to take a breather.