By Mark Young: Zab Judah, the IBF light welterweight champion, has consistently been touted as Amir Khan’s next opponent if Timothy Bradley refuses to fight the King; this isn’t a fight that GBP will want to make next. It’s not going to happen. Zab is dangerous, he’s wild, unpredictable and he’s a southpaw. Coupled with Zab’s unpredictability is the fact he’s been working on his defence with Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker and that’s going to give him a little more composure under pressure than he had before. Zab is far more likely to knock Khan out than Bradley, who would prefer to weather Khans quick onslaught then pick him apart when he predictably runs out of ideas.

Khan wasn’t likely to lose his fight to Paul McCloskey. Let’s be honest, that’s why he took it in the first place! McCloskey ticked all the boxes in the sense he had a pretty clean resume, but he also ticked all the other boxes that Khan likes, such as slightly inexperienced and underpowered. The southpaw stance wasn’t something that fazed Khan during the build up to the fight, but his problems with left handers was made clear in the rounds before the clash of heads.

I took some flak before when I suggested Khan was a cherry picker, but he is, the whole deadline shenanigans with Bradley is the hallmark messing around tactics of a cherry picker. Cherry pickers need an out, a unification bout is always going to be a tough negotiation, so if you want to appear to want the fight but not want it, the thing to do is to make an offer openly, throw in a short deadline and continue to negotiate the fight you do want.

Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for Khan, have him tied into a 4-fight deal, so he’s likely not going in with Judah next; it’s not going to happen, and if it does I promise I’ll come on here, take the heat and admit I was wrong but I don’t think I’ll have to. Khan is obviously not good against a south paw, so why on Earth are GBP going to throw him into a fight with an experienced live wire with real pop who can fight on the inside, Judah would cause Khan serious problems and right now he’s the GBP cash cow.

So who is next? I’m thinking that we’ll see shop worn Erik Morales courted behind the scenes and this fight signed as soon as Morales’ eye opens enough for him to see the dotted line. I realise it’s going out on a limb but I can seriously see Golden Boy doing their level best to keep Khan out of harm’s way and placing their faith in the fact that Morales is just too old. Obviously there will be the excuse that Bradley was not interested, but that’s the nature of throwing a deadline on the fight. Personally, I think Bradley would cause Khan less hassle than Judah, but for Khan’s sake Morales is the guy who’s likely to get the nod.