By William Mackay: World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) says that his trainer Freddie Roach will continue to train him after his number #1 fighter Manny Pacquiao retires in the near future. Roach supposedly was going to retire when Pacquiao retired but says he’ll stick around to continue to train Khan after that. However, you have to wonder whether Roach will stick it out with Khan if he gets knocked out by Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This is Khan’s first real test since he was knocked out two years ago by the hard hitting Breidis Prescott in 2008 and many people think Khan will once again get knocked out now that he’s finally facing another puncher after all this time. The question is whether Roach will stay with Khan after yet another knockout loss for him.

Right now, Roach thinks the knockout defeat Khan suffered two years ago was a fluke and not an indication that Khan has a weak chin, despite Khan having been down and staggered against fighters with moderate power. But a knockout loss to Maidana would pretty much make it clear that Khan’s chin isn’t up to the task of getting hit by big punchers. In that case, it will be interesting to see if Roach decides to stick it out with Khan, and if so, how long before he abandons the task and gives it up as a lost cause. Roach mostly trains fighters that are going somewhere, at least to the paper title stage. However, if Khan is exposed by Maidana and then by whoever comes after Maidana, will Roach stick it out with him when it’s clear that Khan doesn’t have the chin to beat really good fighters?

Speaking with the thesun.co.uk, Khan said “Manny has won all his world titles with Freddie and Freddie had said he would quit when Pac-Man retired. But he’s told me he wants to carry on because he enjoys working me so much. For him to say that to me shows he must have a lot of confidence in me. It gave me a big lift and Freddie has told me that he believes in me like he believes in Manny. I’m sure he could call it a day whenever he wanted and he has achieved so much in his career and produced so many champions.”

I think Khan doesn’t realize that people change their minds. What Roach is saying right now could change in the future if things change with Khan. I’d like to think that Roach would stick it out with Khan as his trainer, but for how long would he if Khan starts getting knocked out left and right, even by weak punchers? I think Maidana is going to blast him into oblivion this Saturday night and he could very well seriously hurt Khan and make him more susceptible to experiencing future knockouts. I think Roach might not feel so good about training Khan when he starts getting beaten over and over again.

Khan says “I’m in boxing to fight the very best out there and that means Floyd [Mayweather] right now for me. Ricky [Hatton] went to Vegas and met the best to try and prove that he was the best and I will continue where Ricky failed. It’s why we fight. Manny knows that Floyd will never fight him and it could be me that gets in the ring with Floyd. That is a real fight.”

Khan sounds seriously deluded about him fighting Mayweather. I can’t see that fight happening in this lifetime unless Khan takes a backdoor way there by facing only weak punchers after Maidana knocks him out. If Mayweather is okay with facing a guy that was knocked out twice and who failed to unify the light welterweight titles, then I can see Khan facing Mayweather. However, that’s about the only way I can see Khan and Mayweather fighting.