By William Mackay: Rather than take on a dangerous and well known fighter like IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah (41-6, 28 KO’s) in a unification bout that boxing cans would almost surely want to see, WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (25-1, 18 KO’s) is angling to fight lightweight Roberto Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 KO’s) instead. That’s less dangerous fight for Khan, because Guerrero isn’t a big puncher like Judah.

Khan was hoping to fight WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, but he declined to fight Khan at this time. Khan and his handlers then tried to match him up with 34-year-old Erik Morales, but he didn’t want to fight Khan either. Now Khan is looking to fight Guerrero, a lightweight and a fighter that isn’t a huge puncher. It seems like strange pick when the better known and bigger punching Judah is available.

Khan could also fight Breidis Prescott again if he were interested, but Khan isn’t interested in fighting Prescott. Khan was knocked out in the 1st round by Prescott in 2008 and hasn’t attempted to avenge that defeat.

“Judah is a runner like McCloskey,” Khan said in an article at Boxingfutures.com. Khan continued “I don’t want another runner. I want to fight a guy who comes to fight. Why am I going to fight a guy who’s going to run all the way through the fight and not want to get hit. This is boxing, it’s not about running away like McCloskey. We asked Morales but he didn’t want to fight…For me, Guerrero is a better fight than Judah cause Zab is a runner.”

Khan fought the weak punching Paul McCloskey last month on April 16th and won by a 6th round technical decision in an awful looking fight that saw Khan missing with a lot of his punches and McCloskey rarely looking to mix it up.

It’s interesting that Khan is labeling Judah as a runner, because many boxing fans seen Khan as a runner. It’s hard not to if you watched Khan’s fight with Marcos Maidana last year. Khan ran and held for most of the fight until getting hurt in the 10th. He then held for the last three rounds of the fight and wasn’t penalized for his holding.

It looks like Khan prefers to fight Guerrero, a fighter that is mostly known as a volume puncher rather than the much faster and more powerful Judah. Somehow, I’m not surprised. Judah is clearly much more dangerous than Guerrero, and if Khan were to face Judah, the chances of Khan being knocked out would be high. If Judah were to land one of his big uppercuts, it could be all over for Khan. I never expected Khan to take a fight with Judah, so none of this surprises me.