By William Mackay: Despite having been beaten in his last two fights and now being matched against a tiny lightweight in Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) in reversing gears on his sinking career, former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) still sees himself within striking distance of mega fights against the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
Khan says he has to beat the little 5’6″ Molina, who Golden Boy Promotions found in the lightweight division, and then Khan wants to recapture both his IBF and WBA light welterweight divisions. This would mean that Khan will have to beat WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson, both of which defeated Khan recently.
Khan said to Boxing News TV, as quoted by bettor.com “It’s [Carlos Molina] one of the steps I have to take to fight the best out there, the likes of Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao…It’s about beating these guys up, getting my titles back again and facing one of the super names.”
It sounds like a pipe dream on Khan’s part, his ambition of fighting the likes of Pacquiao and Mayweather. You know things are bad for Khan that his promoters at Golden Boy are matching him against a lightweight instead of a light welterweight from Khan’s own division. Not only are they matching Khan up against a lightweight, but they’ve selected one that is small and totally without power. Khan is being started from the bottom with this pick and here he is still talking about fighting Mayweather and Pacquiao.
The the truth is the only real way that Khan can likely get a fight against the likes of Mayweather and Pacquiao is if Golden Boy skips past the Peterson and Danny Garcia rematches and instead match Khan up with some soft targets at 140 like Zab Judah, Humberto Soto and Erik Morales. I’d be willing to bet that Khan could get a big money fight against Mayweather or Pacquiao if he beats two of those three fighters and maybe even just one.
I mean, it’ll be a sick mismatch, but I can see Khan getting the fights off a nothing win like that. But if Golden Boy puts Khan back in with Peterson and Garcia, I see Khan losing to them once again. It doesn’t matter that Khan has an excellent new trainer in Virgil Hunter, he’ll still lose. Hunter isn’t going to change anything with Khan. He’s just another guy putting him through his paces, and picking him up off the canvas after he gets knocked out again.
Khan’s ex-trainer Freddie Roach said it best when he said that Khan will be alright as long as he’s kept away from fighters that can punch. The problem is you can’t do that without having Khan avoid the best fighters at light welterweight because the top guys can all punch to some extent, even Peterson. You saw Khan wilt in the 4th round when he tried to stand up to Peterson’s shots in a one on one war. Khan couldn’t handle it and started running, shoving and holding from that point on.
Comments are closed.