By William Mackay: Former two-time world champion Ricky Hatton seems really enamored with what he sees of WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s), feeling that Khan can become boxing’s number #1 fighter in the sport if he keeps doing the right things with his career.

Speaking to the morningstaronline.co.uk, Hatton said “If he continues ticking all the boxes and progressing and improving as he is, I don’t think it will be long before he’s on top of the pound-for-pound list.”

What Hatton is leaving out is what happens with the current #1 fighter Manny Pacquiao? Does this mean that Khan is going to surpass Pacquiao while the Filipino star is still fighting? If that’s the case, you would have to assume that Pacquiao will have to get beaten by someone along the way in the next three years for that to happen. The way that Pacquiao is being carefully matched by his promoter Bob Arum, it’s doubtful that Pacquiao will lose again unless Floyd Mayweather Jr. decides to step up and take the fight with Pacquiao. If Khan has been hitting all the right buttons in his career up to that point and beaten some quality fighters that the boxing public actually cares about, rather than European level fighters like Khan’s current scheduled opponent for April Paul McCloskey, then Khan could take advantage of Pacquiao’s loss and become the number #1 pound-for-pound fighter in boxing. I don’t see it happening. Even if Pacquiao takes a loss to Mayweather, Khan still won’t be the number #1 guy because I think he’s going to resume being carefully matched after he faces Timothy Bradley later on this year. Khan is already going back to his old ways of being carefully matched up after his narrow win over Marcos Maidana. For Khan to get to the number #1 spot, he’s going to have to keep beating top fighters than going back to domestic/European level opponents. Khan wants to move up in weight to the welterweight division after the Bradley fight rather than facing Maidana again or taking on Lucas Matthysse or the Zab Judah vs. Kaizer Mabusa winner. Khan wants to face Shane Mosley, a shot fighter, or Mayweather and then claim the number #1 spot. He’ll lose to Mayweather and the Mosley fight won’t be enough.