By William Mackay: The July 23rd unification bout between WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (25-1, 17 KO’s) and WBC/WBO light welterweight champ Timothy Bradley 27-0, 11 KO’s) is already being talked about and looked forward to by boxing fans around the world. On paper, this would seem like an exciting match pitting two of the top fighters in the division against each other. It’s still too early to say that Bradley and Khan are the best of the light welterweights because neither has been tested against Lucas Matthysse and Zab Judah.

All we’ll known form the Khan-Bradley fight is that one of them is better than the other, but not necessarily the best fighter in the entire division. But as far as the fight goes, I have a feeling that it will be a disappointing fight in terms of action and outcome. The reason being is that both Khan and Bradley often charge forward with their heads down, causing head clashes with their opponents. Khan hurt Marco Antonio Barrera in the past with a head clash, leaving badly cut and virtually blind in one eye early in the fight.

Barrera was basically handicapped for the remainder of the fight until the bout was halted in the 5th and ruled a technical decision. In Khan’s recent fight with Paul McCloskey, Khan rammed heads with McCloskey in the 6th, opening up a nice little cut over McCloskey’s eye that caused the fight to be stopped by the ringside doctor and ruled a technical decision win for Khan. Bradley has had fights stopped against Devon Alexander and Nate Campbell after a clash of heads. Bradley has short arms and seems to have little choice but to come forward head down when trying to land his shots. But with both Khan and Bradley charging forward with their heads down like two little billy goats, I don’t see this fight lasting long without head and face protection.

There’s just too much of a possibility for each of them to be cut to pieces from head butts in this fight. For this reason, I see this as basically a five or six round Olympic-style fight where whoever builds up the early lead will be the ultimate winner in the fight because I see the fight ending in the 5th or 6th round due to cuts from head butts. Like the McCloskey, Barrera, Campbell and Alexander fights, a true winner really won’t ever be known because of the fight being stopped prematurely due to the cuts.

All we’ll know is that one of the fighters was able to build up an early lead to win the fight before the cut. It’s hard to say who will be the one to get off to a quick lead because both fighters are quick starters. Khan might have an advantage because of his height. At 5’10”, Khan is four inches taller than the 5’6” Bradley, and will likely be able to run like crazy and jab his way to a lead in the early rounds before the fight is stopped on cuts. It’s sad that the fight won’t likely get to the second half where Khan tends to run out of gas, but what can you say? I don’t see there being a rematch. I foresee this as a short 4 or 5 rounder ending with a beautiful fight-ending headbutt that leaves one of the two fighters covered with blood and unable to finish the fight.

Khan will take the technical decision win, claim victory, and then move on to either a bout against IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah or move up to the welterweight division to go after one of the paper champions Vyacheslav Senchenko or Jan Zaveck.