By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan needs to win tonight against IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah to keep alive Khan’s hopes of fighting unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2012. But more than that, Khan has to not only win but also impress.

Khan can’t have another life and death fight like he did against Marcos Maidana last November where Khan ran for nine rounds and then took a vicious beating when he stopped running in the last last three rounds. Khan has to win and finish on a high note. There can’t be anymore scenes where Khan is getting pummeled for the last three rounds of the fight while trying to hold the arms, neck and back of his opponent to keep them from beating the living daylights out of him.

Khan has to look good in winning against Judah or it will make things difficult for Mayweather to pick Khan as his next opponent. The last thing that Mayweather wants to be seen doing is picking a guy that is coming off of a poor performance where he’s criticized by the boxing public for a bad performance. This is why Khan has a great deal of pressure on him tonight. He’s got a huge money fight staring at him in the face if he wins tonight against Judah, but it might be too much to ask for a fighter with as little experience as Khan has at the pro level to carry it off.

We haven’t see Khan facing too many big threats during his career other than Breidis Prescott and Marcos Maidana. Those are Khan’s toughest opponents by far and Khan came out of those fights with a 1-1 record. His other bouts have come against weak punchers that Khan was able to beat without too much worry about being knocked out.

Judah, although getting up there in age at 33, falls into the category of Prescott and Maidana because of his huge punching power. He’s not as tall as those guys or as young, but he can punch with the same kind of power when he loads up on his shots. Judah will be a threat when he sets up traps and throws shots with everything he’s got. He can’t punch with as much power on a consistent basis as Maidana and Prescott, because he doesn’t have that kind of power.

Judah won’t bludgeon Khan like Maidana did and won’t be able to stagger Khan with a jab the way that Prescott did. However, if Judah is able to catch Khan overreaching the way he tends to do when throwing right hands, Judah will be in the position to catch Khan with a left hand and knock him out. Khan’s dreams of a Mayweather payday will then go down the drain with that defeat.

“That’s one of the reasons why I want to go into my fights and impress and do well, knowing that fight against Mayweather is mapped out,” Khan said to the guardian.co.uk.