By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) says he will be announcing who his next opponent will be tomorrow on Thursday. Khan, 24, has been looking for what seems like ages to find a suitable opponent that will fit in the budget that he has for his next fight on April 16th at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England. Already, Paul McCloskey, the EBU light welterweight champion, and light welterweight contender Lamont Peterson have been eliminated because they wanted too much money.

Khan is now reduced the possible opponents to Michael Katsidis, Junior Witter, John Murray and Breidis Prescott. My guess is the 36-year-old Witter will get the call for this fight. Witter is old, weak, and incredibly rusty given that he’s not fought in the past 18 months. He’s also lost two out of his last three fights. In other words, he’s the perfect opponent for Khan. Prescott won’t get the fight because he showed mastery over Khan in their previous fight in 2008, stopping Khan in the 1st round and leaving no question that he was the superior fighter.

Khan has a big unification bout coming up later on this year against WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s). Khan figures that if he beats Bradley, he will have proven that he’s the best fighter in the light welterweight division. However, if Khan beats Bradley, he’ll only have proven that he can beat a small and flawed fighter. Bradley would likely lose to other top light welterweights Zab Judah, Kaizer Mabuza, Lucas Matthysse, and Victor Ortiz. Unfortunately, Khan will likely be leaving the light welterweight division if he beats Bradley, and claim that he’s the best fighter in the division despite not facing those guys. Bradley hasn’t fought any of those guys either, so it’s hard to see him as a real champion until he does.