By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions stated after his fighter WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan’s recent win over Paul McCloskey that they have signed a multi-year deal between Khan and HBO. This is a risky deal for HBO because Khan hasn’t shown that he can dominate at light welterweight and with his fragile chin and lack of huge punching power, he could get beaten at any time.

HBO would then be stuck with showing Khan’s fights, likely against more fighters like McCloskey as Khan looks to rebuild after another crushing loss like the one he suffered against hard hitting Bredis Prescott in 2008. Khan never did even try to avenge that defeat, and spent a year rebuilding from that loss.

As quoted by the BBC, De La Hoya said “We have signed a multi-year deal with HBO and Amir Khan. The fight that HBO wants and we want is Timothy Bradley to unify the titles.”

HBO might be less than pleased at the outcome of the Khan-Bradley fight, if and when it ever happens, if Khan is totally destroyed by Bradley in another Prescott-esque knockout loss. I don’t know that the American boxing fans will be able to stomach three years of watching Khan fight guys like McCloskey over and over again while trying to rebuild from another defeat. It seems that HBO should have focused more on signing Khan for a one-fight wait and see type bout against Bradley. If Khan were to win that fight, then sign him up for another fight but only if it’s against a quality fighter and not another obscure opponent that few have ever heard of.

HBO needs to be more shrewd about what fights they’ll accept and be extra careful when signing up fighters like Khan that can be knocked out and exposed at a moment’s notice. The last thing that HBO needs is to have Khan in a long term contract where he’s milking his title rather than facing guys that the American boxing fans want to see him fight like Bradley, rematches with Marcos Maidana and Prescott, and fights against Devon Alexander, Lucas Matthysse and Zab Judah. It’s a waste of time to have Khan fighting McCloskey.