khan7 By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) may not have beaten a highly talented fighter in many years since his close win over Marcos Maidana in 2010, but he feels that he can beat anyone now with the skills that he has.

Khan will get a chance to prove himself this Saturday night against former two division belt holder Devon Alexander (26-2, 14 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Alexander was recently exposed by Shawn Porter, and that obviously will keep Khan from gaining a lot of respect should he beat him on Saturday.

The guys that Khan should be fighting to earn a shot against Floyd Mayweather Jr is Keith Thurman and/or Maidana. Beating one or both of those guys would be much bigger wins than defeating a guy who was recently dominated by Shawn Porter. But obviously Khan isn’t going to get matched against dangerous guys like Maidana or Thurman when he and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions believe that he’s on the verge of getting an important dream fight against Mayweather.

“As long as I stick to the way I fight I don’t think anyone can beat me,” Khan said via Fightnews.com. “I have the fastest hands in boxing and I have probably the best boxing skills in the world so if I just be smart and stick to those skills I don’t think I’ll have a problem with anyone.”

It’s hard to agree with Khan bragging about himself having the best boxing skills in the world given that he was beaten by Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson not too long ago. I mean, if a fighter has the best boxing skills in the world, then what in the heck are they doing getting beaten by Peterson and Garcia in back to back fights?

Khan hasn’t beaten anyone that you can call a really good fighter since those defeats. He’s beaten little 5’5” Carlos Molina, Julio Diaz, and Luis Collazo since then in the past two years. Those aren’t big enough wins for Khan to be talking up his own skills and saying he has the best boxing skills on earth. For Khan to be talking about himself having the best skills in boxing, he needs to prove he can beat Thurman and Maidana without trickery and without the referee getting in the way of the action.

I expect Khan to have a lot of problems against Alexander on Saturday. It doesn’t matter that Khan is a little faster. He’s still going to have a lot of problems with Alexander, because the guy can box and he’s good at timing his opponents.

Khan’s advantage in hand speed won’t be enough for him to just go out and dominate. The only way Khan dominates this fight is if he resorts to fouling and is allowed to get away with different kinds of fouls. I mean, if the referee allows Khan to put Alexander in head-locks, shove and pull down on his head all night, then I think Khan can dominate as long as Alexander doesn’t use those same fouls.