By William Mackay: If you’ve been reading some of WBA Super World light welterweight champion Amir Khan’s juicy quotes, you’ll have noticed that he likes to say this: “There’s not much I can do apart from beating the person they put in front of me.” In using the word “They”, Khan presumably is speaking about his promoters from Golden Boy Promotions.

It sounds like Khan is passing the blame for his opposition to his management. That what sounds like to me. All I can do is beat the guys they put in front of me. If that’s the case, why doesn’t Khan stand up on his hind legs and speak for himself and tell his promoters that he doesn’t want to fight guys like Paul McCloskey, Zab Judah, and Paulie Malignaggi.

Why doesn’t Khan tell his promoters he wants to fight rematches with Marcos Maidana and Breidis Prescott to clear up those poor performances? Is Khan passing the buck? It sure looks that way to me. If you’re saying ‘I only fight the guys they put in front of me’, that sounds like Khan isn’t accepting responsibility for the guys he’s facing.

Khan needs to show some assertiveness, because he can’t be fighting old guys or pillow punchers until he gets his cash out fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr next year, can he? The guy has got to step it up against guys that can actually fight, not a whole bunch of soft touches that will keep the Khan gravy training rolling. It goes without saying that Mayweather is going to make Khan look ridiculous next year in beating him badly. But at least Khan should fight guys that will gain him some respect before he gets his cash out fight with Mayweather, like Prescott or Maidana.

It’s really interesting to hear that Khan wants to fight Erik Morales. Why fight that old guy when he just lost? By taking on a guy like that, it just strengthens the argument that some boxing fans have that Khan is a manufactured fighter, a guy that’s been carefully built up and marketed to be a star but without the real tests needed to be a genuine one.