By Dan Ambrose: If you look at some of the comments that both Amir Khan and his trainer Freddie Roach have been making recently about the upcoming fight with challenger Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s), it seems like neither of their feet are on the ground. Khan, whose ego took a big hit when he was destroyed by Breidis Prescott two years ago, has recovered from that loss and now sees himself as in the same class as the best fighters in boxing and often talks about a hoped for future fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year.

I don’t know that maybe Roach has done too good of a job in rebuilding Khan’s ego from the Prescott loss. Khan seems to be someone that has a big ego to begin with, but the constant feeding him with compliments and light punchers like Oisin Fagan, Paulie Malignaggi and Dmitri Salita to get his confidence back up may have done too much to feed Khan’s ego. It would be bad for Khan to go out there against Maidana on Saturday thinking he can exchange with him because he sees himself as better than him in the same league with Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

I’ve also noticed that both Khan and Roach have been doing a lot of name dropping of Pacquiao’s name, often mentioning the sparring sessions that Khan had with Pacquiao and saying that they were either even or that Khan got the better of Pacquiao. I see this as name dropping, which is a short cut that some people use to raise their own status to the same level of the person that they’re talking about. I know Roach wants Khan to be the next Pacquiao, but he needs for Khan to actually earn that by actually beating top fighters over the course of his career instead of constantly mentioning Khan in the same breath as Pacquiao.

By the same token, Khan should be talking about Maidana and him only instead of his dream fight against Mayweather or how he did well in sparring with Pacquiao. That seems so transparent with what a name dropper does. Khan should instead focus on the Maidana fight, give him the respect that he deserves, and then if he beats him only then should Khan be thinking about his next opponent. And the one that Khan needs to be looking at after this fight is the winner of the Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander fight, not Mayweather.