By William Mackay: Freddie Roach and WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) are supremely confident that this Saturday’s opponent Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) won’t be good enough and will be stopped at some point in the fight. In fact, Khan, 24, is so confident about his chances in this fight that he can’t stop talking about a dream fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Khan not only thinks he’ll beat Maidana, but he’s under the impression that Mayweather will come out of the woodwork to fight him of all people. I don’t see it.

Even if Khan does get by Maidana, which I don’t see him doing, that doesn’t translate into Mayweather suddenly rushing in to take a fight with Khan of all people. Why Mayweather do that? If anyone, Mayweather is going to take the huge money and fight Manny Pacquiao, not some obscure British light welterweight that the casual boxing fan in the U.S. still can’t even recognize. Khan and Roach are kidding themselves about a lot of things. I know Roach isn’t happy that Mayweather won’t fight his guy Pacquiao right now, but that doesn’t mean that Mayweather is going to turn around and fight Khan.

In an article at the Guardian.co.uk, Khan said “I can’t wait for it [a fight against Mayweather] to happen. I’m maybe one or two fights away from it.”

Khan and his dreams of fighting Mayweather reminds me of the character Lennie from John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men.” Lennie and his best friend George are a couple of migrant workers during the depression that drift around from farm to farm looking for work. George, the intelligent one, paints a mental picture of a place that both of them will have one day that will be their very own and with rabbits and other things that they’ll never actually be able to afford. Poor Lennie believes it and constantly asks George to tell him about their mythical place that they’ll both have one day in the future. The problem is that neither of them are saving any money and are barely surviving with the little money they’re getting. To make a long story short, they don’t ever get a place of their very own. Lennie, who’s not particularly bright, accidentally murders his bosses’ wife. George then puts Lennie out of his misery by shooting him in the back of the head while telling him about this place that they’ll never have.

Khan totally reminds me of Lennie with his constant talk of a future fight against Mayweather. Khan overlooking the Maidana fight, as well as having to beat the winner of the Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander bout. Khan makes it seem as if he’s a cinch to win those fights, when in all likelihood, he’s going to get knocked out on Saturday by Maidana and will never get to the point to even fight Bradley or Alexander, much less Mayweather.