Amir Khan covets bigger battle but must first evade Zab Judah's traps

It has become part of boxing's hard-wired wisdom to accept the words of Freddie Roach as the unimpeachable truth so, when he says that Amir Khan's fight against Zab Judah at the Mandalay Bay will be "easy", the temptation is to accept it. That's too much unquestioning faith to put in one man, though. As smart as the award-winning trainer of the year has proved to be in a career of almost uninterrupted success, Judah does hold the IBF 10-stone title and throws a chilling left from his southpaw stance, which a lot of good fighters have found hard to fathom. He is known as a patient trap-setter. "Amir has had some great workouts," Roach said, "and we are prepared for this guy, who is very experienced. I think this will be an easy fight and if we fight the right fight there should not be a problem. Amir is just too young and too fast for this guy." There is the caveat: "If we fight the right fight." He did not do that against Paul McCloskey in Manchester in April, forcing a stoppage in six ugly rounds. Roach knows that Mayweather, a southpaw stylist who has lost six of 18 world title fights – to Joshua Clottey, Miguel Angel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Carlos Baldomir, Cory Spinks and Kostya Tszyu – has been stopped six times in 49 contests. Never the less, Judah looks up for this and he wants Khan's WBA belt to put himself in line for a rematch with Mayweather, the welterweight champion who returns to the ring against Carlos Ortiz in September. Indeed, both fighters are guilty of looking past each other to the much bigger payday against Mayweather. "If we get through this fight," Khan says, "I really think it is a possibility because Mayweather has already been told that in the future he could be facing me. His team has agreed with that. I think to have things mapped out in a plan is good because you know where you are going and what you have to achieve. That's one of the reasons why I want to go into my fights and impress and do well, knowing that fight against Mayweather is mapped out." Mayweather beat Judah easily on points five years ago but had to come through a few desperate moments, the worst of them when Judah hit him low in the 10th row and set in motion a brawl between their respective corners. That is the wild side of Judah; the other low-point of his career was the night he hit the referee after rising from the canvas courtesy of a clinical finisher from Tszyu in 2001. Judah is a supposedly reformed big mouth whose evangelism for "the Lord Jesus Christ" is of a piece with the addiction to redemption in American sport. It is tiresome – and somewhat at odds with Judah's homage to Victor Conte, the disgraced advocate of performance-enhancing drugs who got a name check at the final press conference on Thursday. There were rumours, too – vehemently denied – that the notorious Panama Al Lewis – banned and jailed for removing the stuffing from Luis Resto's gloves the night he badly beat Billy Collins at Madison Square Garden in 1983, effectively finishing his career – has been hovering around the Judah camp. But what is boxing without rumours, real or imagined? The Las Vegas resident from Brownsville – and close friend of fellow Brooklynite Mike Tyson – has taken on Pernell Whitaker as his trainer in what clearly is a final career push. "He's in good hands with me," said Whitaker, who won world titles at four weights in an era of outstanding fighters around his weight, but also lost direction after he retired, serving 27 months in prison for violating probation on a cocaine conviction in 2003. "We're gonna make sure the young fellow [Khan] makes it back to England. Safe. Healthy? I don't know." Judah makes the ritual noises. "People have been getting this stuff about Zab Judah, 33-years-old, is an old fighter, mixed up. What you gotta understand is that I turned professional at 18-years-old. I was champion by 20-years-old and I reigned ever since [not uninterrupted, however]. "I've got my second wind. I've lived my years as Zab Judah just being Zab Judah, tough guy, Brooklyn, whatever. I'm here to say today, that don't pay man; just live your life and be happy. Saturday night I'm gonna give you guys the best Zab Judah that you guys are looking for." Khan should win, on a late stoppage after cat-and-mouse exchanges in the early rounds, but he has to watch out for that left hand and a sneaky right, which have iced 28 fighters in Judah's 15 years as a professional. Then again, Khan has stopped 17 of 26 opponents, including three in his five world title fights: McCloskey, the tough Paulie Malignaggi and outclassed Dmitriy Salita. He showed, too, in surviving an horrendous 10th round against Marcos Maidana at this venue last November that he can mix it when he has to. When the talking is done and the punches have been thrown, missing and landing in their usual way, all attention will turn again to one man: Mayweather. The winner will immediately seek to tempt the enigmatic, trash-talking champion into a fight at welterweight, probably in February. A rematch with Judah would not excite the industry, but Khan moving up a division to take him on is an attractive proposition for HBO, who are pleased with the growing popularity here of the young British fighter. He has just about out-grown the 10-stone limit and Roach is sure he can carry his power up to welterweight. Allegations by Mayweather's trainer and uncle, Roger, that Khan has been on steroids does not rankle the camp much, but Khan says that fight now has a definite edge to it. "Definitely," he says. "I am a chilled kind of guy and always cool but Mayweather always disrespects his opponents – maybe just to give him confidence. "I think it will be a grudge fight but that will make it more interesting. We will have Freddie in one corner and I will also have Manny Pacquiao on my side. Whatever he says, I will be chilled." Preferably not lying on his back staring at the ceiling.