By William Mackay: IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan has signed a three fight deal with Sky Sports to have his fights shown starting with his December 10th fight against his International Boxing Federation mandatory challenger Lamont Peterson. Khan had been with Sky in the past but left them to fight on Primetime PPV after Sky decided not to air Khan’s mismatch against Paul McCloskey on pay per view.

Khan still thought it was a PPV worthy fight and moved the fight to Primetime. It still brought in decent numbers, to be fair, but Khan probably shot himself in the foot by doing this. Given that he’s still trying to win new fans, he would have been better off putting the McCloskey mismatch on regular non-PPV cable.

Khan signing with Sky means he’ll be seen by a lot more fans. However, it won’t mean a thing unless he starts stepping it up and facing dangerous opposition like Marcos Maidana, Bredis Prescott or Lucas Matthysse. Khan wants to move up to the welterweight division after he fights Peterson next month in order to chase a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. This could end up being a really stupid move by Khan if he doesn’t get the payday fight against Mayweather. There really is only a tiny handful of quality fighters in the welterweight division, and many of them would be in a good position to knock Khan out. Of the best fighters in the division, Mike Jones, Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz, I see all of them beating Khan. If Khan’s objective is to dodge everyone but Mayweather, then he’ll probably do alright because of how dreadfully weak the division is right now. But if you put Khan in with Ortiz, Berto or Jones, Khan will get knocked out. This is why I think it’s a stupid move for Khan. At 140, he’s got a big advantage due to his height and reach. But at welterweight, Khan’s size is less of a big deal because the better fighters have the skills to get past Khan’s reach and knock him cold.

My thoughts are that Khan will likely face two weak welterweights after his fight with Peterson next month and Sky won’t be showing anything interesting from Khan in terms of competitive matches. He seems to be getting matched up very, very carefully since the Maidana fight and looks like his management are keeping him away from tough fights. I don’t blame them if they are, because Khan’s chin is too fragile and he’s not built to take a lot of punishment.