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After beating Paulie Malignaggi in his last fight, Amir Khan initially said that he would be fighting again at the end of July, before returning at the end of the year for a more high profile fight.
The opponents he was looking at for the July fight were all lightweights who would have to move up in weight to face him. Somewhat understandable given the short notice of the fight and the fact that most of the top light welterweight fighters are all occupied with one thing or another.
After it was announced that the July fight had been scrapped, seemingly because things were not progressing quickly enough to give Khan adequate time to train, it was expected he would resume looking for a big fight at the end of the year.
Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer then said that Khan could be in line to face the winner of Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz, again both lightweights. Marquez is fairly high profile, but Khan doesn't yet have a big enough name to make a fight between them into a big event. Floyd Mayweather fought Marquez as his first fight back after retirement, but was already one of the biggest names in the sport, and of course the fight was completely one sided.
There is also an ongoing war of words between Khan and John Murray, who holds the European lightweight title. As Murray pointed out recently in the Manchester Evening News: "He’s offering fights to me, Katsidis and Casamayor, who are all lightweights. He’s not willing to fight anyone from his own division,"
Like any up and coming fighter, Khan has his share of critics, both from the fact that his chin is still a question mark and the fact that he isn't taking on the best in his division at the moment. Beating any amount of pumped up lightweights though isn't the way to convert those who doubt his abilities.
When it was announced that he was taking on light punching Paulie Malignaggi for his U.S debut, some were critical of the fact that his one weakness wouldn't really be tested. Even so, Malignaggi was a top ten light welterweight at the time, and Khan beat him very easily. After the fight even calling out his mandatory challenger Marcos Maidana.
Now that the short notice July fight has been cancelled though, all the talk of Khan fighting lightweights needs to stop. Tune up fights are fine, but if you only fight twice per year they had better be against credible opponents if you want to rise to the top of the division. Sure, fights against the other top fighters in his division might me difficult to make, but there are plenty of credible contenders who would make for better opposition than any lightweight. Especially given that Khan is big for a light welterweight anyway and will eventually almost certainly move up in weight.
Victor Ortiz is a fellow Golden boy prospect with a single loss to his name, and impressed many with his dismantling of Nate Campbell on the Khan-Malignaggi undercard. Following the theme of taking on past Ricky Hatton opponents, Juan Urango is dangerous enough to be considered a good challenge for Khan also.
Then there are the other fighters making up the big four in his division. Tim Bradley, Devon Alexander and Marcos Maidana. The latter recently admitted that he was in fact not injured, but sorting out managerial difficulties. One of the issues being that he isn't sure of who his promoter is (It's between Golden boy and Universum) because his previous manager never let him see any paper work. If Golden Boy turns out to be the winner though then surely a fight with Khan should be easy to make.
David Brand, Pittsburgh: "If Khan wants to fight lightweights so much he should move down there and take all the titles. Making lightweights move up now though is a step back from beating Malignaggi"
Greg Bower, Philly: "Alexander or Maidana would be easy fights to make and Khan is a big enough star then both would be interested. I don't know why he's wasting his time talking about European lightweight champions in the press when he has bigger fish to fry"
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