Is Amir Khan awaiting the outcome of Marquez – Diaz II?
Stephen Jarvis: During an interview with Amir Khan a few days after his impressive stateside debt against Brooklyn’s Paulie Malignaggi, the 23-year-old spoke of his desire to return to the ring as early as July. Several names where mentioned including Joel Casamayor who fights next weekend against Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero.
Due to his religious beliefs, Khan will be adhering to Ramadan where he will fast from dawn until sunset from 11 August-9 September.
Khan seems to have missed the boat and the WBA light welterweight champion may not enter the ring until the end of the year.
Many pundits have criticised King Khan for choice of opponent, although I believe the fighter himself wants to fight the best, but his handlers choose the safety route and steer him in another direction.
Personally I feel the Malignaggi fight was a good and sensible move, Khan was making his stateside debt and wanted to impress, who better than a popular fighter who lacked knockout power, but did have a chin and a proven record of going the distance.
Now rumours have surfaced that Team Khan is looking to secure a fight against the winner of Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz, (a rematch of the 2009 fight of the year), due to take place at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States on July 31.
If this is the case I’m afraid to say I, who has been a fan of Khan from his Olympic success will join the many critics.
As mentioned before I gave the young champion a pardon for his stateside debt, but expected big things or big challenges to follow. In my opinion, Khan should be competing in the division in which he holds a liner title (light welterweight), and against a true light welterweight contender or champion. Yes, many fighters move divisions to secure a title fight or meaningful challenge, this has become the norm for boxers of today. The problem I have with Khan who is a big light welterweight fighting the likes of Juan Manuel Marquez is the fact that there is many intriguing match ups against young hungry champions in the light welterweight division.
Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, Marcos Maidana and Victor Ortiz, there is four names straight of the bat whom Khan should be fighting. Any fighter with any ambition should be challenging other champions within the division where they compete.
As boxing fans we are suckers, myself included, being honest we all know the outcome of a Khan – Marquez fight (Khan wins), yes Juan Manuel Marquez has been a great warrior who has been in many battles, but that’s the point many battles that will take its toll on the 36-year-olds body, not to mention the battle with Diaz that is scheduled for July 31.
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Comments (4)
Alexander is fighting Kotelnik because he just signed a deal with Don King, who also promotes Alexander.
Bradley isn't fighting Alexander, because Jose Sulaiman of the WBA threatened Alexander with the stripping of his WBC belt.
Maidana has been bought by GBP and all this nonsense about Maidana's "back injury" was a smoke screen to keep him out of the way and a mandatory against Khan. Hence Khan's Dr's "sicknote" telling him to rest not for "four" months, but now "seven".
Khan is 140 WBA champ, therefor should be defending titles against top 5 140 fighters!
Disgraceful the games being played at GBP!
As for the rest at light welterweight I would agree, they are all ducking each other, but not Bradley.
Why is Maidana fighting a shot fighter next?
Why did Bradley just fight a nobody at 147 when there was Alexander.
See. You guys criticise Khan but never look at the others.