By William Mackay: WBA Super World light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) will be moving up to 147 after his unification bout with Timothy Bradley in July. Before that, Khan faces little known EBU champion Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) in April in a fight that Khan specifically asked despite there being pretty much zero interest in the mismatch. Khan says he’ll stop McCloskey in six. Few boxing fans would disagree with that, because McCloskey is slow, not particularly powerful and probably beatable to many of the top contenders.
In an interview with Eastsideboxing.com’s On The Ropes Boxing Radio, Khan once again mentioned that he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. when he moves up to 147 later on in the year. However, the chances of that fight happening aren’t too good right now, due to Mayweather’s legal problems. Khan will likely have to settle for a number if less interesting and in some ways even more dangerous fights for him unless he continues with his trend of mostly fighting weak punchers the way he’s been doing since being stopped in the 1st round by Breidis Prescott in 2008.
If Mayweather won’t fight Khan, which is likely, Khan’s options are less than thrilling at 147. There’s Shane Mosley, who will be turning 40 soon. A Khan-Mosley fight will be bit of a joke, especially after Mosley loses to Manny Pacquiao in May. Khan will look like a cherry picker if he fights Mosley coming off of yet another loss. My guess is Khan will probably look to fight Mosley rather than say someone dangerous like Mike Jones or Andre Berto. I see both of those guys beating Khan. You have to have power to fight in the welterweight division and Khan’s style of fighting, which is basically a mix of slaps, running and holding, won’t get the job done against the better punchers in the division.
Khan throws flurries with little power and then immediately runs or holds. You got to have more than that to fight at welterweight unless you’re going to cherry pick opponents. Khan would be better to stay at light welterweight and then step up if Mayweather shows interest. I doubt he will. Khan will then be forced to pick and choose fighters at welterweight and probably take on guys that no one wants to see him fight. We’re seeing that now with Khan facing McCloskey. Well, you can expect a lot more of that at welterweight unless Mayweather shows interest in him.
The thing with Mayweather is that it doesn’t matter if Khan loses to him, because Khan would be getting a huge payday. But if Khan loses to Jones, Berto, Kell Brook and other top fighters, his stock goes way down. Looking at Khan’s last fight with Marcos Maidana, I think it’s safe to say that Khan wouldn’t do well against Jones, Berto and some of the other top fighters at welterweight.
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