By Sean McDaniel: Frank Warren, the former promoter for WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (25-1, 17 KO’s), is concerned about Khan if he chooses to take on undefeated WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s) in his next fight in July. Although Warren doesn’t say exactly what the problem is, he feels that the Bradley fight will be a very tough bout for Khan right now and feels that something isn’t right with Khan’s game for the past few fights.
Here is what Warren had to say: “I fear, however, that if Khan faces Timothy Bradley next, it will be a tough fight for him. Something’s not been quite right for the last couple of fights, and that’s a worry. If the Bradley fight doesn’t happen, one option might be to move up to welterweight and take on Victor Ortiz, who had a good win over Andre Berto last week. But Khan has to choose his next move carefully – because he isn’t the Amir most knowledgeable observers once knew.”
I tend to agree with Warren. I think Khan hasn’t been the same fighter he once was since his 1st round blowout loss to Bredis Prescott in 2008, and I think all the shots that Khan was forced to eat in his fight with Marcos Maidana didn’t help matters any. Khan took a lot of hard head shots in that fight and was perhaps lucky that he had a referee that was breaking up the inside fighting, which is where Khan was getting the worst of it by Maidana. In the McCloskey fight, Khan missed often and didn’t look sharp. Mind you, this was an opponent that was selected for Khan to get an easy win and look impressive against. McCloskey had no power or hand speed to really trouble Khan, yet Khan still struggled to beat him.
I don’t think Ortiz is a good option for Khan. Indeed, I see that as a much worse option than the Bradley fight because Ortiz is a much different animal at welterweight. He’s a lot bigger at that weight class and much stronger and seems to be more rugged. That would be like putting Khan in with a faster and more powerful version of Maidana. Unless they have a referee that can not only break up inside action but also break up outside action as well, I don’t see Khan winning a fight against Ortiz. They’d have to make this at light welterweight for Khan to have any real chance at beating Ortiz, I fear. But it’s not likely that Khan’s management team will be quick to put him in with a southpaw slugger like Ortiz. It’s probably going to be Bradley because Khan has already committed himself to that fight with all the talk he’s made about it. It’s not too late to back out now, but Khan will look bad if he avoids the Bradley fight. But he might be better off going after Zab Judah, the IBF light welterweight champion first rather than Bradley.
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