Amir Khan’s next fight: Welterweight return opens up a lot of possibilities

Amir Khan got knocked out by Canelo Alvarez. It’s what almost everyone expected. Khan, a welterweight, took a risk fighting middleweight champion Alvarez at a 155-pound catchweight. Few thought he had a real chance. Most thought he would get stopped.

Khan (31-4, 19 KO) boxed pretty well before he was sparked in the sixth round. He showcased his superior hand speed, his ability to box against a bigger, stronger man, and as always, his mere presence in the ring in such a precarious situation demonstrated that he’s got heart to spare. If anything, Khan gained respect for what he did on Saturday night, even though he lost, and even though he was spectacularly knocked out.

The 29-year-old Khan told HBO’s Max Kellerman after the fight that he would be going back to the welterweight division, where he fought in 2014 and 2015, with solid, if not amazing results. He beat Luis Collazo and Devon Alexander quite impressively, but his win last year over Chris Algieri was a bit tougher than expected.

Whenever Khan comes back, though, he’s going to have a lot of options at welterweight. For one thing, he’s got increased name value now. He already had decent name value, but it did nothing but go up with this fight. That means he’s worth money. Plus, Khan, skilled as he is, has always been an attractive opponent for top fighters, because he just has never taken a punch all that well, and he has defensive lapses that put him in bad spots. We saw that against Alvarez -- he wasn’t broken down so much as he got a bit careless and was destroyed with a single punch. We’ve seen that in past losses at lightweight against Breidis Prescott, and junior welterweight against Danny Garcia.

Khan is a very good fighter. He’s got loads of talent. But he also has the “weak chin,” and making matters worse, in some ways, is that he has a huge heart and his instinct is to get into firefights. He can be suckered, and he’s so brave that he just compounds things in the heat of the moment.

Garcia, in fact, is a potential opponent. Before taking the fight at 155 against Alvarez, Khan was named mandatory challenger for Garcia’s WBC welterweight title, which the Philadelphia fighter claimed in January by beating Robert Guerrero for the vacant title, which Floyd Mayweather had given up upon his “retirement” last September. Garcia beat Khan back in 2012 in a fight that was similar to Canelo-Khan. Khan was boxing very well before he got clipped and dropped in the third round. He managed to get out of that round, but Garcia caught him again and stopped him in the fourth after two more knockdowns.

Garcia-Khan II is an intriguing fight. So is a potential return home to the United Kingdom -- where Khan has not fought since struggling to a 2013 win over faded veteran Julio Diaz -- to face IBF titleholder Kell Brook. Brook (36-0, 25 KO) has been chasing the Khan fight for a while now, since winning the belt in 2014. Brook and promoter Eddie Hearn thought they were close to a deal to face Khan when Amir signed instead to fight Alvarez.

The feeling for Khan’s side was that win or lose against Canelo, the Brook fight would be there. And Kell wasted no time calling Amir out after the knockout on Saturday. At 11:56 p.m. ET, he tweeted a challenge to Khan. There is very good money in that fight in the United Kingdom, where boxing is currently heating up thanks to several world titleholders sparking new interest in the sport. Brook, one of those titleholders, is still looking for a real signature win. His title victory over Shawn Porter was impressive, but his reign has been flat, with three wins over mediocre opponents. Khan is the biggest fight for him, and he knows it.

If Khan chooses to take a big fight and a real challenge in his next outing, it likely would be Garcia or Brook. But there’s also the very reasonable chance that he’ll want to come back with something of a tune up, get himself back in the winner’s circle, freshen up without taking a big risk. If that’s the case, it’s anyone’s guess on an opponent. It could be a fringe contender or veteran like Robert Guerrero, Aron Martinez or Jesus Soto Karass. It could be someone even further down the ladder like Gabriel Bracero, Erick Boné or Emmanuel Taylor. There are lots of fighters out there who fit the tune-up bill, none of them particularly exciting, but again, it would be a totally understandable choice given the result of the fight with Canelo.

We’ll have to wait and see what Amir Khan wants to do next, but there are fights at any level waiting for him. He’s got nothing to be ashamed of after this defeat, and he’s never lacked for confidence or brass.