By Eric Thomas: According to the latest boxing news, top rated light welterweight contender Victor Ortiz (28-2-1, 22 KO’s) may be fighting former WBA light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik (31-4, 13 KO’s) on the undercard of the Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana championship fight on December 11th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

There had been talk of Ortiz fighting unbeaten EBU lightweight champion John Murray (31-0, 18 KO’s). However, according to Livefight.com, Murray is looking to get a title shot in the lightweight division and his contract with his promotional company is currently up and there’s going to be a potential bidding war for his services.

In the end, it may be better that Murray not fight Ortiz, because Murray appears in my estimation to be too slow, too weak and not quite in the same league as Ortiz, despite being only one division and five pounds lighter than the light welterweight Ortiz. Kotelnik, 32, is a decent but far from great choice to fight Ortiz.

Kotelnik has lost two out of his last three fights and probably should have lost his last three bouts because his 12 round split decision over Marcos Maidana last year appeared to be a gift decision. I saw the fight and had Maidana winning by at least two to four rounds.

Kotelnik was easily beaten by Amir Khan last year in a 12 round decision and then defeated once again in his last fight against IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander in August.

Kotelnik fought well in that fight, but he gave away far too many of the first six rounds of the bout and ended up losing because of that. He did do a good job of exposing all the many weaknesses in Alexander’s game. However, those same flaws were pretty well known by knowledgeable boxing experts going into the fight.

If Kotelnik does end up getting picked to fight Ortiz, I think he’s going to get blown out and battered in the same way he was in the Maidana fight. Although wasn’t blown out by Maidana, Kotelnik was really punished in the fight and looked like a bloody mess by the end of it.

Ortiz will probably do the same thing and worse because of his better hand speed than Maidana. It would have been more interesting, however, to see what Ortiz would have done with Murray, since the British fighter is being hyped so badly. It would give a pretty clear picture of Murray’s talent level or lack thereof if he had fought Ortiz.