By Mark Vester
Promoter Frank Warren has made a request to the WBO to sanction this Saturday's lightweight bout between Amir Khan and Marco Antonio Barrera as a mandatory eliminator for a title shot. The fight takes place at the MEN Arena in Manchester. Barrera is ranked at number 1 and Khan is ranked at 10. Because they are the two highest ranked available lightweights, Warren says the sanctioning body should make the fight a final eliminator.
"Barrera is number one with them and Amir is the next available contender, so it should be," said Warren to the BBC. "I hope they will recognise it as that because it deserves to be, we'll keep our fingers crossed."
The champion is Juan Manuel Marquez, who is scheduled to move up in his next fight to junior welterweight. If Khan wins, Warren will have to sit down and think about their next move.
"We'll see what happens and how Amir looks in the fight. If he does what I hope he can do and what I believe he can do, then this is going to be a big, big occasion and put him in a position which hopefully opens a lot of doors for us to decide what the next move is," Warren said.
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