By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (25-1, 17 KO’s) may choose to stick around the light welterweight division a little longer after his unification bout with WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley this summer. If Khan gets through that fight in one piece and picks up Bradley’s two straps, Khan may next be going after IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah (41-6, 28 KO’s) so that Khan could capture all four titles.

With the Bradley win, Khan would have three of the four belts but would still need a win over Judah for Khan to have all the titles in his possession. This move would make a lot more sense than for Khan to immediately move up in weight to the welterweight division after the Bradley fight, because Khan doesn’t look ready to take on the bigger, stronger fighters at that weight like Victor Ortiz. I’m not counting Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao because I don’t see those fighters even considering facing Khan with him still being unproven and carefully matched.

Unless Khan’s promoters really cherry pick opponents for him the fighter that Khan needs to go after is Ortiz, and I don’t think Khan has the power, the physical build, the chin or the inside game to beat Ortiz. Khan might be able to pick up a paper title against one of the champions like Jan Zaveck or Vyacheslav Senchenko, but I’m not even sure Khan could get by those guys. Zaveck can punch a little and I can see him knocking Khan out. And Senchenko has a great jab and would give Khan a lot of problems with it. He’s also not short at 5’10” and has a long 70” reach.

Khan might end up betting beaten and his dreams of making big money would be shattered. It’s probably safer for Khan’s promoters to keep him at light welterweight. Down at that weight he’s like a big fish in a small pond. I think he can avoid fighting Marcos Maidana for a long time because of his narrow win, and other than him and Lucas Matthysee, the division is filled with a bunch of short, light punchers. Khan could remain a champion for a while as long as he avoids Maidana and Matthysse. But if he moves up in weight to the welterweight division the gravy train could end very quickly with him getting knocked out over and over again. He’s just not a big enough puncher and seems far too fragile to deal with sturdy fighters like Ortiz.