By Dan Ambrose: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) has some fatal flaws with his game that are going to get him in deep trouble in the near future when he’s finished cherry picking his next opponent. Khan has committed himself to facing the winner of the Devon Alexander vs. Timothy Bradley fight, and those are two fighters that Khan doesn’t have the skills to beat. Khan was exposed badly by his last opponent Marcos Maidana, who showed again and again that Khan has no inside game.

The guy can’t fight at all on the inside and merely tries to hold to keep from getting hit. Khan’s supporters will point that he landed a body shot that dropped Maidana early on, but that’s not something Khan is able to do on a frequent basis because he doesn’t have the chin to stand in close and work the body. That’s probably why he didn’t even try to follow up with more body shots when he had Maidana hurt. But Khan doesn’t have any real weapons in close like a good uppercut. He’s basically all about clinching when his opponents get close.

What this means is Khan can only fight on the outside where he likes to jab and throw short flurries that often miss but impress the judges. Having only an outside game would work if Khan had some power, but he’s not a big puncher at light welterweight. He’s not going to be able to hurt people with his fast shots. Without power, Khan is eventually going to find himself in close with someone like Bradley and he’s going to get hurt because Bradley is an excellent inside fighter. Clinching will only help Khan so much.

He can’t survive on that to beat quality fighters. Khan got lucky because his people were smart enough to choose Joe Cortez as the referee for the fight. He stopped Maidana in his tracks when he was trying to pound Khan on the inside when Khan was holding. Khan won’t likely get Cortez again unless his opponent has no say so in the matter. I can see Khan getting Cortez to work his next fight against someone like Lamont Peterson, but Bradley probably won’t go for that. Khan will have to actually fight Bradley on the inside instead of being bailed out while he’s taking punishment.