By Scott Gilfoid: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) isn’t a huge star in the United States right now and the chances are high that he never will be. The bar is set high in the U.S., as American fans like fighters that mix it up like Marcos Maidana and Manny Pacquiao rather than fighters that run around the ring all night playing hit and run.

Americans don’t like runners like Khan. They don’t like fighters that have to literally hold on to keep from getting knocked out. They like the Michael Katsidis types. Fighters that aren’t afraid to brawl. Khan doesn’t fight like that, and that’s why I see him largely ignored by American boxing fans. He doesn’t entertain. Maidana was the one that made the Khan-Maidana fight interesting to watch. It wasn’t Khan. He was the thing that made the fight frustrating to watch.

Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, thinks that 24-year-old Khan will be boxing’s next big super star despite Khan having to go to the wall to beat Maidana last December in a fight that Khan looked terrible in. Khan looked lucky to have not been knocked out in that fight, which makes it all the more weird to see Schaefer talking about Khan like he’s on the cusp of greatness.

“There is no doubt that Amir is boxing’s next true super star, and as a world champion, is a fighter that now commands pay-per-view billing,” Schaefer said in an article at thesun.co.uk.

I think Schaefer is dead wrong on both of those points. Khan isn’t attracting big pay-per-view numbers for his advanced PPV sales for bout against McCloskey this Saturday. I suppose you can command as in shop around for networks that are willing to put your fight on PPV, but that doesn’t mean Khan’s fights are PPV worthy and will bring in big numbers. If they try to stick Khan on PPV in the U.S, which is what they’re likely going to do when he fights WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley this summer, I’m willing to bet that the PPV numbers will be dismal. Few people know who Khan is in the U.S. and Bradley isn’t even bringing in high ratings for his fights on normal HBO. How in the world is a Khan-Bradley fight going to sell big when neither of them are big stars? Schaefer will have to pack the undercard for a Khan-Bradley fight with all of his best fighters like Marcos Maidana for it to get some people interested.

I see Khan ending up like Andre Berto, a fighter that HBO has been shoving down American’s throats for the past three years fight after fight, and yet he’s still not a super star and doesn’t have a big fan base. I see the same thing happening with Khan. He can fight over and over again on U.S. television with HBO showing all of his fights, but I can’t see him becoming a star. One problem is Khan will likely get beaten really soon, and that will mess things up a little. Another thing is his poor opposition. You can’t take on a good fighter and that reward yourself by facing two or three soft opponents afterwards. No one wants to see Khan fight Paul McCloskey, and that’s the kind of soft opponent that Khan falls back to. He’ll probably do the same thing after the Bradley fight. It’s like one step forward and two steps back. You can’t become a star by facing obscure fighters that no one has ever heard of.