By William Mackay: Well, you can add EBU light welterweight champion Paul McCloskey to the list of names that won’t be fighting WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan on April 16th after his promoter reported that a fight with Khan was dead in the water because of a low offer from Khan. Light welterweight contender Lamont Peterson had already been ruled out as an opponent because he had supposedly “priced himself out” for a fight with Khan by asking for too much money.

Unless Khan wants to revisit those potential fights, the options available to him are as follows: Breidis Prescott, Lucas Matthysse, Michael Katsidis and John Murray.

Prescott, who already knocked Khan out in 2008 in a 1st round blowout win, has made it clear that he won’t price himself out for a fight with Khan. However, Khan seems to be avoiding Prescott like the plague because of how easily he was beaten by the hard punching Colombian fighter three years ago. Although Khan likes to make an excuse that he proved that his chin isn’t vulnerable in his last fight against Marcos Maidana, the face remains that Khan’s chin is still poor. He showed that it’s not total glass, but it’s still a poor chin. Khan ran from Maidana the entire night and when Khan finally slowed down in the 10th, he got tagged and badly hurt. That tells me that Khan’s chin is still very questionable.

So will Khan take a fight with Prescott? It’s the best fight out there if Khan wants to attract attention and get boxing fans interested in watching his next fight. However, Prescott would have a very real chance of knocking Khan out because his hooks seem to go right around Khan’s guard and find his head every time. I don’t think Khan could ever beat Prescott even if he chose to run all night long.

If Khan fought John Murry or Katsidis, it would make Khan look like he’s cherry picking smaller fighters, because both of those guys are lightweights and not light welterweights. However, this is a move I can see Khan making in order to fight someone that won’t have much of a chance of planing him on the deck. It’s not exactly sporting to fight guys smaller and I wouldn’t be pleased at a match-up between these guys and Khan.

As far as Matthysse goes, I can’t see Khan ever willingly choosing to fight this guy. He hits too hard and it would be like Khan facing a more strategic version of Maidana. The only way I ever see Khan fighting Matthysse is if he’s made the mandatory challenger for Khan and he’s being threatened by the WBA to have his title stripped.