By Dan Ambrose: Freddie Roach sounds as if he’s ready to bet everything that his fighter World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) will be the next biggest thing in boxing. Whether he is or isn’t could be partially determined tonight when he fights the hard hitting Argentinian Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both Roach and Khan seem to have adopted an identical swagger and way of speaking where they’re already talking as if the Maidana fight is won and are looking down the road towards winning the unification bout against the winner of the Timothy Bradley – Devon Alexander bout and fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr.

It could be something that Roach has told Khan to do in order to make Maidana feel as if he’s already lost the fight and that he’s not even being considered as a competitive opponent or it could be that Roach and Khan are both identical with their tremendous egos and the habit both of them have of looking into the future instead of the threat of ahead. This is was the mistake Khan already in the past when he knocked out by Breidis Prescott. He was too busy looking ahead and not focusing on what Prescott was bring to the table.

Roach, speaking to Sky Sports news, said “I think he’s [Khan] my next Manny Pacquiao. I think hell be a multi-weight champion like Pacquiao. I think he’s my next pound-for-pound greatest fighter in the world.”

I think by Roach saying Pacquiao is going to be his next Pacquiao, it cheapens what Pacquiao is accomplished, because Khan hasn’t fought anyone yet and has been matched selectively since his knockout loss to Prescott. If a handful of wins over spoonfed opposition is all it takes to make Khan another Pacquiao, I think Roach needs to clear his head a little and look at Pacquiao’s resume. Perhaps Roach should wait until Khan at least beats Maidana and then proves that he can beat Alexander or Bradley before he makes silly statements about lumping Khan in the same league as Pacquiao. As it is, Khan’s opposition hasn’t exactly been brilliant fighters since the Prescott loss.

Since that defeat, Khan has faced in the following order: Oisin Fagan, Marco Antonio Barrera, Andriy Kotelnik, Dmitriy Salita and Paulie Malignaggi. Those aren’t exactly dangerous fighters. You can make an argument that those are the types of fighters that you would match a fighter with a questionable chin against to keep him from getting knocked out again the way that Khan was.

I wouldn’t look at that list and all of a sudden think that my fighter was in the same league as Pacquiao if he beat them, because I can see Bradley and Alexander beating all of those guys, and the same with Maidana, even though he lost a controversial decision to Kotelnik. I also think Victor Ortiz could beat all those fighters. So should all of them be considered the next Pacquiao because they can beat guys like Fagan, Barrera, Kotelnik, Salita and Malignaggi? Roach needs to slow down and let Khan actually prove himself against some fighters who are a threat to him, not just brought in for him to look good against and not get knocked out again.