By Sean McDaniel: British promoter Frank Warren says WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) needs to fight at least three times in 2011. Warrant used to promote Khan and always had him busy with fights in order for him to continue to progress as a fighter.

However, Khan, now promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, only fought twice in 2010 against the light hitting former International Boxing Federation (IBF) light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi and then recently against knockout artist Marcos Maidana. Warren is right.

I think for Khan, who is only 24, fighting only two times a year might not be the wisest thing for him to be doing if he wants to keep getting better. He needs to be fighting at least three to four times a year if he wants to have enough opportunities to beat the better fighters in boxing.

Khan is probably good enough to beat the lesser guys, but not the quality fighters in boxing. Khan needs to be fighting more often if he wants to beat guys like Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley, Victor Ortiz, and Lamont Peterson. Khan might help himself if he were to give a rematch to Maidana to show that he can beat him more conclusively because it wasn’t a pretty sight to see Khan badly hurt, clawing at Maidana and holding on for dear life in the last three rounds of the bout.

It wasn’t the kind of performance that instills confidence in Khan that he’s the real deal and the next big thing in boxing. Something about seeing a fighter staggering on spaghetti legs while trying to clinch his way for the last here rounds kind of makes one wonder.