By William Mackay: Having just beaten a 33-year-old IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah (41-7, 28 KO’s), who looked totally shot last night in a 5th round stoppage of questionable nature, IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s) is now targeting another aging fighter in 34-year-old Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KO’s) in his next fight in December. Instead of going after a rematch with Marcos Maidana, who really gave Khan tons of problems last December in a life and death fight, Khan is going for a bout against Morales. This has cherry picking written all over it.

Morales was just beaten by Maidana, so it’s very hard to see the logic in facing a guy that was just beaten. If anything, Khan needs to fight Maidana again since he just beat Morales. That makes a lot more sense to me. The Khan-Maidana fight was the fight of the year for 2010, and usually fighters that are involved with crowd pleasing fights of that nature like to take on that opponent again to give fans more of what they just saw. But not Khan. He’d rather go after an aging Erik Morales, who totally ran out of gas and was beaten by Maidana. Not only was Morales beaten, his right eye was all messed up in that fight and hopefully it’s going to be okay for his next fight against British fighter Anthony Crolla on September 17 in their fight on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The fighter that Khan really needs to fight is Breidis Prescott, but Khan doesn’t want any part of him. Prescott knocked Khan out in the 1st round three years ago and Khan doesn’t even want to try and avenge the defeat. Had that been Prescott in the ring with him last night instead of the frozen statue-like Judah, Prescott would have put hands on Khan. He wouldn’t have just stood there like Judah did for five rounds, unable to pull the trigger. Prescott is young, power, fast and he’s got Khan’s number. He’s not a fighter that’s aged to the point where he can’t let his punches go like Judah. Prescott is the fight that Khan should be taking but he’s not. He’ll go after another old guy, and boxing fans will be none the wiser. They see Khan’s win over an old Judah as a sign that Khan is the best instead of realizing that Judah had no business fighting Khan in the first place after being given a very questionable 12 round decision win over Lucas Matthysse last year. Matthysse should have been the one facing Khan, but then again Matthysse can punch so it’s not that surprising he didn’t get the fight.

Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, says that Khan will face Morales in December. This will be an in house Golden Boy fight, as Morales and Khan are both with Golden Boy. That’s kind of sad because Morales has little left and the casual boxing fans who have little clue about the sport, may think that Morales is the same fighter he once was in the past. They’ll see a Khan victory over Morales as a sign that Khan must be the best instead of seeing it for what it will be – a case of Khan beating a fading fighter that’s best days are far behind him in the past. Morales’ best weight was at super bantamweight [122 pounds], and he’s not the same fighter at 140. It’s a mismatch. But the fight might not happen, though, because Morales very well could be beaten by Crolla.

I can see that happening. I doubt it, because Crolla will have to do something really special to get a decision win over a famous fighter like Morales. I’ve already see Morales get two very questionable wins during his comeback against 2nd tier fighters Jose Alfaro and Francisco Lorenzo. I had Morales losing both fights. But it shows how hard it can be for someone to beat Morales by a decision. I think Crolla might have to knock Morales out to get a win, and that’s not going to happen. But if Morales beats Crolla by a controversial decision, it’s going to make Khan look even worse than he is already will be by taking on an aging Morales next rather than Prescott, Matthysse or Maidana.