Khan to vacate his WBA title rather than facing Maidana?

According to the latest news gossip, there is talk that World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (21-1, 15 KO’s) will vacate his WBA title if he’s forced by the WBA to fight interim champion Marcos Maidana (26-1, 25 KO’s). How come I’m not surprised? Apparently, Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t want Khan to fight Maidana next, and prefers to go after better (easier) opponents like Erik Morales instead. It looks as if Roach and Khan want to milk the WBA title for as long as they can before Khan is forced to vacate rather than take on a dangerous puncher like Maidana. Khan has had problems in the past when facing fighters with decent power and has had huge problems when facing an opponent with excellent power, losing by a 1st round knockout to Breidis Prescott last year.

Khan moved up in weight recently from the lightweight division to go after Andriy Kotelnik’s WBA light welterweight title. It was the perfect opponent for the weak chinned Khan. Not only did Khan get a fighter with almost zero power, but he also got an opponent with poor movement and slow hand speed.

Many people predicted after that Khan would cherry pick opponents while a champion, fighting the easier opponents with little power until eventually vacating the title once faced with the prospects of fighting a puncher like Maidana or Victor Ortiz. But, it looks as if Khan will be ducking Maidana.

I didn’t think that Khan would go after an old timer like Erik Morales. He hasn’t fought in two years and has lost four out of his last five bouts. That would be a terrible opponent for Khan to fight and would make him look like a bottom feeder. Khan has already fought another old timer Marco Antonio Barrera in March, and beaten him under questionable circumstances due to a head butt that occurred early in the fight.

But now to face another old guy like Morales, it would make it look like Khan is afraid of fighting quality fighters. This kind of thing can be overlooked by boxing fans if it happens in between fights against top level opponents, but Khan has been overly protected during his four year pro career and has only fought one fighter I can consider to be quality in the way of Breidis Prescott.

Khan won’t be doing anything to make himself look like a legitimate fighter if he keeps looking for over the hill or weak punchers to fight. Roach obviously knows what he’s doing and realizes that he has a fighter with a glass chin that needs to be protected. But it’s not good for the sport to have a champion ducking quality opponents, taking on older timers and then vacating once he had a good opponent.

I suppose once Khan has vacated his title, he’ll be free to go after other easy marks out there with little punch or those who are just plain punch drunk. If the boxing public can stomach watching Khan fight old timers and easy marks, then it’s all good for Khan. Let the money roll in.

There’s a sucker born every minute. However, Khan forget about establishing any credibility with boxing fans. You can forget about Maidana and you can forget about unification bouts against Bradley. That isn’t going to happen.

Khan will probably remain popular no matter whom he fights against because the causal boxing fans have no knowledge at all about the sport and if they see a flashy fighter liken khan wiping out older fighter like Morales, they will eat it up as if Morales is still a top fighter.

As long as the television analysts don’t mention what Khan is doing in facing older fighters, the ignorant boxing fans will think he’s the real deal. It’s kind of like Oscar De La Hoya at the end of his career. Many boxing fans didn’t even know that De La Hoya was no longer a champion and were still flocking to see his fights even though he was losing almost all of them by this point in his career.

The choice of Morales obviously is being made to improve Khan’s status in the U.S. Morales is well known in the United States, so if Khan is seen beating Morales up, it will raise the image of Khan among the casual fan base. Morales, who has fought most of his career at super bantamweight and featherweight, will be way out of his league against the much heavier and younger Khan and will end up losing badly.

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Will Khan Fight Erik Morales Next?

With the potential fight against Ricky Hatton off the table after Ricky quashed those rumors by saying he wasn’t interested, WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (21-1, 15 KO’s) has to find someone for his next opponent. Freddie Roach, Khan’s trainer, mentioned Erik Morales as a potential opponent a couple of weeks ago. Morales, 33, hasn’t fought in two years and has ballooned up in weight since that time. However, he reportedly is interested in making a comeback, so a fight with Khan might be an option. Aside from the fact that Morales has been largely inactive for ages, he also fought at a smaller weight class for most of his career and only in his last fight, a 12 round decision loss to David Diaz in August 2007, did Morales move up to lightweight. it’s doubtful that the boxing public would be able to stomach a fight against Morales, who has lost five out of his last six fights since 2004.

Of course, Morales’ name still remains popular among boxing fans, but it wouldn’t exactly be the best fight that Khan could dig up for his next opponent. I’m not one to question Roach’s decision making, because he is after all considered to be a mini genius for the success that Pacquiao has made in the few years with wins over De La Hoya, Hatton and Morales.

However, Khan has taken heat for fighting what many people consider to be hand picked opponents since his 1st round wipeout loss to Breidis Prescott last year. Khan rebounded from the loss with a 5th round technical decision over the smallish 35-year-old Marco Antonio Barrera, then Amir selected WBA light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik to fight next, a fighter that many boxing experts feel was the weakest of the light welterweight champions.

If Khan follows that fight with a bout against Morales, it might not give a favorable impression to his fans. I doubt that Khan will want to be labeled as a cherry picker, but that might end up being the case if he fights Morales and then follows that with a mandatory defense against his number #1 challenger in the WBA, little known Dimitry Salita.

At that point, Khan could then find another optional defense and who knows what Khan and Roach would pick next at that point. I know that it probably won’t be a big slugger like Marcos Maidana. With an optional defense, it could be another Morales-type opponent for Khan.

Heck, Khan might end up being the Felix Sturm of the light welterweight division. Sure, Khan would make a lot of money, no doubt, but turn away potential boxing fans while doing so. Initially, I thought Khan and Roach were being brave by looking for a fight against Ricky Hatton. However, with the bad knockout loss that Hatton suffered against Manny Pacquiao in his last fight, I don’t think it would take too much bravery to fight him at this point.

As for Morales, there is little doubt that Khan would easily beat the former champion. I doubt that Khan would knock him out, because Khan would likely be trying to protect his weak chin too much and would be taking few risks against the rusty fighter. In the end, Khan would get the win, but probably turn off fans by another weak choice of an opponent.

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KHAN WINS WBA SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT CROWN FROM KOTELNIK

Amir Khan won the first of what many experts say will be multiple world titles as he wrestled the WBA Super Lightweight championship with a twelve round unanimous decision over Andreas Kotelnik at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England.

Khan had a solid round’s one and two as he moved in and out. Kotelnick got into the fight late in the second as he landed a good right. He started round three as he scored well with acombinations but Khan came back to box well at the end of the round. Khan continued to box well as he retreated and gave ground to create space. He did eat a few nice shots as he went bacwards in the fifth round.

Kotelnik continued to move forward but Khan’s length and speed was the difference as he moved in and out very well in a sucsessful effort to keep Kotelnik at bay.

Khan won by scores of 120-108, 118-111 and 118-111 for Khan who is now 21-1. Kotelnik is now 31-3-1.

James DeGale went to 3-0 with two knockouts with a first round stoppage over Ciaran Healey in a scheduled four round middleweight bout.

Former world amateur champ Frankie Gavin scored two knockdowns en route to a second round stoppage over Graham Fearn in a Welterweight bout.

Gavin scored the knockdowns with body punches and is now 3-0 with all wins coming by knockouts. Fearn is now 4-3.

2008 English Olympian Billy Joe Saunders made it three straight second round stoppages as he took care of sixty-six fight veteran Matt Scriven in a scheduled four round Super Middleweight bout.

Saunders was dominat as he raised his record to 3-0 with the afforementioned stoppages. Scriven is now 13-53

Anthony Small scored an eighth round stoppage over Matthew Hall to claim the vacant BBBofC British light middleweight title and Commonwealth (British Empire) light middleweight title.

It was a close fight early until Small had a good round six. In round seven, Hall suffered a nasty cut around the right eye from a clash of heads. Hall was never able to recover from that as Small unloaded a flurry of punches until referee Richie Davies stopped the fight at 2:21 of round eight of the scheduled twelve round fight.

Small is now 22-1 with sixteen knockouts. Hall is 22-2.

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