By Jim Dower: Dan Rafael is reporting that that a fight between former World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik (31-4-1, 13 KO’s) and the hard hitting American Victor Ortiz (28-2-1, 22 KO’s) is in the works for the December 11th fight card with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. This would be great news if this fight happens, although it’s far from a truly great fight. It’s at least better than matching Ortiz against a B level fighter.

Kotelnik, 32, is seen as a trial horse for Ortiz, who is finally being matched against a relatively tough fighter after having been stopped in the 6th round last year by Maidana. Ortiz has been matched against mostly over fighters since then and has rebounded well with four straight wins. However, Ortiz’s promoters Golden Boy Promotions won’t know if Ortiz has really progressed as a fighter until he beats a good fighter like Kotelnik. There was the possibiliy of Ortiz being matched up against EBU lightweight champion John Murray.

However, it looks as if Murray and his team have decided to stay at lightweight and wait out a title shot against either WBC lightweight champion Humberto Soto or the winner of the fight between WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez and Michael Katsidis on November 27th. It’s probably better that Ortiz end up facing Kotelnik rather than Murray, because Kotelnik looks a lot better than Murray and it probably wouldn’t have been a very interesting fight.

Ortiz recently defeated Vivian Harris and Nate Campbell, two former champions. Campbell, 38, looked as if he had deteriorated too much and didn’t have the size, hand speed or the power to handle Ortiz. The fight ended up with Ortiz winning a lopsided 10 round decision. In Ortiz’s last fight, he stopped Harrison in three round on September 18th. Harrison couldn’t handle Ortiz’s power and found himself on the deck repeatedly until Ortiz finally took Harris out with a short hook in the 3rd.

Kotelnik has lost his last two bouts to Amir Khan and Devon Alexander. The loss to Khan was a one-sided 12 round decision. Kotelnik didn’t have the height, reach or the hand speed to deal with Khan. All Khan did was move around the ring jabbing, throwing short combinations and occasionally throwing small flurries. In his fight with Alexander, Kotelnik was able to find success with his jabs and 1-2 combinations. Alexander looked exhausted and out of his element in the 2nd half of the fight. Kotelnik was too technical for him and probably should have the fight, except that it took place in Alexander’s home city of Saint Louis, Missouri.