Amir Khan to announce his next opponent next week

Hope to announce my next opponent sometime next week 👊 pic.twitter.com/wpU08OsvdC

— Amir Khan (@AmirKingKhan) March 6, 2015

By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) says he’ll be announcing his next opponent for May sometime next week.

Khan, 28, isn’t saying who the fighter will be, but it’s not expected to be anyone with any punching power that could potentially knock him out and wreck his dreams of getting a big money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao. In fact, Khan is counting on getting the winner of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which is why we’re likely to see Khan’s trend of facing weak punchers continue for his next fight.

There’s talk of Khan being in negotiations with IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn for a fight between Khan and Brook in the summer. However, I’d be very surprised if that fight takes place until the end of the year, if then. If that fight does take place, it’s going to mean that Khan won’t return to the ring until June or July, because Brook has a fight against his #1 IBF mandatory challenger Jo Jo Dan on March 28th, and it’s going to take Brook at least four months to get ready for his next fight after that unless he scores a quick knockout over Dan.

I wouldn’t rule that out from happening because Dan has never shown the type of talent that would suggest that he’d be a real threat to any of the top 10 contenders in the welterweight division. After all, we’re talking about a guy who was twice beaten by Selcuk Aydin. The International Boxing Federation made themselves look out of touch in the minds of some boxing fans with the #1 ranking they gave Dan.

Khan has recently been making noise about wanting to fight Miguel Cotto, but that obviously is a fight that has no chances at all of ever happening due to Cotto having recently signed with Roc Nation Sports, and Khan still under management with Al Haymon.

Khan’s only hopes of a fight against Cotto taking place would be to wait for Cotto’s multi-year contract to expire in the future. But, of course, by the time the soon to be 35-year-old Cotto’s contract runs out with Roc Nation, he’ll be nearing 40, and there won’t be any point in Khan facing Cotto.

If Khan wants to take on a big name at middleweight, he’d be better off looking to get a fight against WBA champion Gennady Golovkin. He’s considered to be the best fighter at 160, and it’s a fight that could probably be made.

The only problem is I don’t see Haymon ever making a fight like that, because he probably wouldn’t be too excited at seeing Khan obliterated by Golovkin. If Khan takes another quick knockout loss like the ones he suffered against Danny Garcia and Breidis Prescott, his value as a fighter would likely plummet, and that’s not something that Haymon would to see happen.

Haymon is going to make sure that Khan is put in fights where he has an excellent chance of winning until he gets a fight against the likes of Mayweather or Pacquiao. Those are cash out type fights where it doesn’t matter if Khan gets destroyed or clowned. The money will be so good that there won’t be a negative to him getting beaten, battered and exposed yet again.