By Eric Thomas: IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah (41-6, 28 KO’s) can spoil WBA World light welterweight champion Amir Khan’s grand plans of a fight next year with Floyd Mayweather Jr. by knocking Khan out in their unification bout on July 23 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Khan has hand speed and a cocky attitude much in the same way as fellow British countryman David Haye had before being beaten by IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko last Saturday night in Germany. Judah could turn Khan into another Haye-like figure by either knocking him out or dominating him.

However, Judah’s work will be a lot harder if he wants to win a decision because it’s not easy to beat up and coming stars like Khan by a decision. It may take a very one-sided fight for Judah to win a decision. However, with his big power and Khan’s likely overconfident approach to this fight, we could see Judah knocking out Khan early in this fight by the 6th or 7th. Khan’s opposition has been weak punchers for the most part. He’s really only faced two dangerous threats in entire career and was knocked out by one of them, Breidis Prescott, and almost knockout by the other, Marcos Maidana.

Beyond those two fighters, Khan has been put in with weak punchers and not the type that would have to power to dent his fragile chin. Judah does have excellent power and still above average hand speed. He’s not as fast as he used to be, but faster than anyone that Khan has been in with yet. Khan’s main assets are his hand speed and size. The hand speed advantage won’t be much of one in this fight because the southpaw Judah fights well against fighters with speed.

But the only questions is whether the 5’10” Khan’s height advantage over the 5’7 1/2″ Judah will be enough for Khan to win. Judah actually has the longer reach of the two, so Khan’s size advantage may not matter unless he comes into the fight weighing a lot more than Judah. That could be the case, as Khan looked huge after rehydrating for his last fight against Paul McCloskey in April.