By William Mackay: Amir Khan missed out on a chance to try and prove himself in a rematch with Lamont Peterson due to Peterson’s recent positive test for a banned substance. Khan now will be fighting on July 7th, and his options are less than appealing in terms of an easy fight that he can turn things around with.
He lost his last fight against Peterson, and he needs a win right now. The options that are being mentioned for Khan are Erik Morales and Devon Alexander. Khan isn’t going to get Morales, so I hope he’s not banking on a fight against him, because that’s not going to happen. If Morales doesn’t get a July 14th fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, then he’ll likely go in another direction. That’ll leave Alexander.
If Khan takes that fight I’ll be really, really surprised, because Alexander is even better than Peterson. We already saw what Peterson was able to do to Khan. It would show a lot about Khan if he agreed to fight Alexander, but I don’t think he’ll take that fight. It’ll be Morales or some obscure light welterweight that is ranked lower in the division.
If it’s not an obscure fighter, it’ll likely be old lion that’s lost a few steps and can no longer compete against the best. Morales would be perfect for Khan, and would be like Khan facing Marco Antonio Barrera again. Khan could get a famous scalp on his resume and the casual boxing fans would likely not even have a clue that Morales is seven years past the tail end of his prime.
I’d like to see Khan face Marcos Maidana again, but with how badly Maidana beat Khan last time they fought in 2010, I can’t see Golden Boy wanting to take the risk with their mini cash cow by putting him back in with Maidana. The only way I could see that fight happening is if referee Joe Cortez was selected to be the referee for the rematch. If he were to keep Maidana from working on the inside, Khan would have an excellent chance of winning the fight. He’d still take a beating but he’d likely win it if Cortez was to pull Maidana off of Khan each time he was working him over in close.
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