By William Mackay: If WBA Super World light welterweight champion Amir Khan is so intent on fighting for the WBC strap against 35-year-old Erik Morales, Khan will have to wait until 2012 to fight Morales for the strap. Morales reportedly wants to take another fight against someone else other than Khan later on in 2011.

However, none of this will have any meaning if Morales can’t beat Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 KO’s) on September 17th when they fight for the vacant World Boxing Council title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Matthysse, 28, has to be considered the favorite in that fight despite having lost 2 out of his last 3 fights in the past year.

Matthysse lost to Zab Judah and then to Devon Alexander recently, but appeared to actually win both of those fights. Where Matthysse seems to have gone wrong is taking those fights in Judah and Alexander’s home town. In hindsight, Matthysse should have said no to both fights unless he could get them in a neutral state such as Nevada. Morales is basically fighting an unbeaten opponent in Matthysse, whose record should be 30-0, 26 KO’s) instead of 28-2. This is going to be a very tough fight for Morales, because he hasn’t looked very good since making a comeback in 2010.

Although he showed improvement in his last fight against Marcos Maidana last April, Morales still didn’t fight hard enough, didn’t throw enough punches, and completely ran out of gas after the 9th round. You can’t run out of gas against a fighter like Matthysse and hope to win. This isn’t a fight taking place in Mexico where Morales wins. He’s going to have to actually beat Matthysse, because the judges probably won’t give him the benefit of the doubt just because he’s more popular.

As for Khan, this is bad news for him because he wanted to fight for the WBC light welterweight title on December 10th. If Morales wins, Khan will have to take on another light welterweight opponent. His choices are Marcos Maidana, the winner of Breidis Prescott vs. Paul McCloskey, and Lamont Peterson. The easiest choice, and the safest pick would be the feather-fisted Peterson, who can’t punch and has a fragile chin. That’s who I think Khan will pick. Prescott already knocked Khan out, and it’s clear Khan doesn’t want any part of Prescott again.

Maidana gave Khan a terrible beating last December. Khan also doesn’t want any part of Maidana again for obvious reasons. Khan wants that money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year and Prescott and Maidana can upset his plans. Matthysse also is someone Khan probably won’t fight if he beats Morales. Matthysse can punch, and Khan hasn’t shown any inclination that he’ll want to fight him, even with the WBC belt on the line.

If Morales wins against Matthysse, it’s going to make things messy for Khan, because he’ll have to fight at least two more times if he wants to pick up the WBC paper title. I’m not sure Khan will be up for that. He was hoping to move up to welterweight early next year against someone like Kell Brook. But if Khan has to wait until next year just to fight Morales, a fighter not considered to be the very best in the division, for the WBC paper title, it’s going to disrupt Khan’s grand plans of quickly fighting Mayweather for a big money fight.