Khan: “Malignaggi is a big possibility”
January 25th, 2010
By William Mackay: It’s still unclear who World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) will select for his next fight on April 17th. The WBA wants Khan to defend his title against WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (27-1, 26 KO’s). However, Khan’s new promotional company Golden Boy Promotions, including his trainer Freddie Roach, prefers that Khan goes after a bigger name for his U.S. debut fight, someone like Paulie Malignaggi, Juan Diaz or Juan Manuel Marquez.
It might be a mildly interesting one to see for some boxing fans, because it matches two fighters that move a lot instead of two sluggers. However, if Khan takes a fight against Malignaggi, he could end up alienating fan, who might see Khan as avoiding the hard hitting Maidana. Khan has a reputation with some fans as having a weak chin.
This wasn’t helped by his 1st round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott in 2008. Khan has taken on exclusively light punchers since that loss. A fight against Maidana would have been Khan’s chance to prove that his loss to Prescott was a fluke, and that he can take a big shot from a big puncher without folding. If Khan chooses Malignaggi or the smaller Marquez and Diaz, it will still leave questions that need to be answered about Khan’s chin.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer wants to put Maidana on the undercard of Khan’s next fight in an effort to build up a future fight with Khan instead of putting the two fighters together immediately. The theory here is to build up the names of both Khan and Maidana in the U.S. to create a bigger money fight in the future.
Maidana already has made a name for himself with boxing fans with his 6th round stoppage win over Victor Ortiz last year. Although Maidana can certainly stand to have more visibility in the U.S., but he would be getting exactly that if Khan would fight him. Instead, Khan would have a fight against Maidana or someone else, and Maidana would likely get an unknown opponent. I see this as benefiting Khan but not doing much for Maidana.
Tags: 27 Responses to “Khan: “Malignaggi is a big possibility””
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Ha ha I love it Rubber Duki!! Another fan of Oli. I have nocome accross one person on this site that likes him!! He is a complete idiot and all he does is go on about Hatton and Khan, overated and will get beat by Americans, blah blah! The guy bores me to tears just like Junior Witter did when he was in the ring.
Oli – Why dont you write something worth reading then you may actually get some good feeback instead of everyone having a pop at you? You are an easy target because you write so much utter rubbish!! Walking in a HATTON wonderalnd!!
hey oli dolly u say ur an carl froch fan yet yet i havnt seen you post a single thing on artcles regarding him.
Its true you ony like fighters who are the same colour as yourself that is pathetic you little boy.
You better hope witter the quitter and bradley dont get picked to face khan or hatton because they will be destroyed and u and the other 49 fans of witter will be crying on the bus back home !!!
Theres only 1 ricky hatton !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dont you just love the roar and atmosphere when ricky fights oli
Don@London – I dont agree that it is Khan’s duty to fight his mandatory challenger!!If all fighters spent time fighting there mandatory challenger then we wouldnt have any top fights at all.Some of the so called mandatory challengers shouldnt even be in the ring with the champion. Take Salita for example who knocked down 3 times on route to a victory inside 80 seconds! Another prime example is Joe Calzaghe, he had to fight a string of bums defending his WBO super middleweight title before he got his career defining fights. Don’t get this confused with me having a go at Calzaghe because he is a legend and would have ended up undeafted no matter who he fought! My point is the idiots that get together around a table to discuss who their mandatory should be for their title are 9 times out of 10 an insult to the champion. On this occasion I agree that Maidana deserves a shot and is certainly one of the better NO1 ranked contenders out there but if Khan and his team want to chase a fight with the likes of Paulie Malignaggi for more exposure and more money then that it is their choice!For the record I take Khan to stop Maidana in the middle rounds if they fight. He was on the deck several times against Ortiz and didnt look to have a great defence!
Shakeeb,
As the WBA Light Welterweight World champion it is Khans duty to fight his mandatory challenger. It is ridiculously obvious to see that he is avoiding anyone who can punch! Answer me this: How come he fought Dmitriy Salita if its all about the publicity and money then? Anyone who pays to see Khan has been conned in my book, i’ll invest my money in watching a true champion, one who takes on all comers and ducks nobody like Carl Froch or Ricky Hatton not this little weasel! Even little Kevin Mitchell had to deal with Prescott for Khan and hes a natural featherweight. I mean seriously people, wake up!!!
khons future fight smaller men hardly ranked that cant punch then call him self great retire kidding him self all though very rich off fools gold lol
It will be Malignaggi next you can bet on that, cos this guy couldnt break an egg(5 ko’s). even Khans chin could problies stand up to Malignaggis bombs.
All these people saying Amir is ducking are just pure haters they know exactly what GBP are doing… Putting Amir and Maidana on the same undercard building up the fight between the two so it can be a bigger fight and make more money.. But people will say he is ducking but he will fight him if not next the fight after that.. Oli how was it sucking off witter?
@ oli
Do you think khan would beat bradley?
has this guy or scott gilford written an article about khan without mentioning his loss
Here we go again with James MC. Khan would gammon Maidana. Why fight Maidana now? there no money in the kitty you silly man. would you paint my walls for free? It would be like walking down the road with your eyes glued on a house that belongs to the girl you fancy, and then ‘BANG’ you walk straight into the lampost.
@ shakeeb
Im kinda thinkin the same as you shakeeb a little here.Your right maidana isnt a big draw (money wise) for amir so building the fight up a little wont hurt much meaning amir vs paulie maybe before amir faces maidana.
The thing is thou ive got a sneaky feeling maidana will be exposed in his next fight and i was hoping it would be amir to do it.
Maidana huge puncher but no skills khan will win.
Paulie will be a decent test for kahn not a huge puncher but better boxer than maidana.
@jam-how is malignagie a bigger fight than maidana,malignagie has lost 2 of his last 4 fights,where as maidana just beat americas next big thing ortiz on hbo,with a brutal round stoppage.plus malignagie isnt a sluger,so the more appealing fights is maidana,plus when salita was mandatory khan used this to build up the fight,but now that maidanas mandatory why is it a difrent story?
This is great news for Amir Khan and boxing. A fight with Marquez, Diaz, Malagnaggi or Morales as a kind of ‘tune up’ for the Maidana bout would be of great beneficial for him. He wants to make a pavement for himself in America. If he fights Maidana straight away, the money wont be there for him. He’s only 23 yet people are jumping on his back. He will take care of Maidana when the times right. Once his beat one of the four mentioned, the fight with Maidana can be pencilled in.
Khan will loose fans! the only people he will loose are haters he never had in the first place…..
Listen, outside of core fightfans maidana is not known, malinaggi and marquez are and would make for a much more excititng debut fight then a slugging maidana….you know sometimes it feels like i have to give boxing lessons on this forum!
Why is khan gettin all this articles about him?
MARQUEZ WILL K.O. KHAN IF THEY FIGHT. IF I WAS HIM I WOULD TAKE THE TUNE UP FIGHT AGAINST MALIGNAGGI , THEN FIGHT MAIDANA . MARQUEZ IS A VETERAN, AND STILL A FORCE IN THE DIVISION.
he’s not fighting marquez, or anyone that good. everyone knows that why even suggest it?
What’s with the overload of articles about Khan?? There hasn’t been any significant changes in his situation. Just go after Marquez already. He’s obviously the biggest name out of the ones Khan gets to choose from. Otherwise stick with Maidana and stop fussing around. It’s just making matters worse.
Why not fight malinagi first it could be a non title fight if malinagi isn’t no1 contender, if khan wins more people would watch him vs maidina later in the year, and give malinagi a rematch after his title defence. I know this would never happen because boxing is all about politics and money not proving who is really the best.
KHAN SHOULD BEAT MALIGNAGGI EASILY CAUSE HE(MALIGNAGGI) SEEMS LIKE MENTALLY ILL, ANY DOUBT? LOOK AT HIS FACE AND BODY LANGUAGE CAREFULLY WHILE HAVING INTERVIEWED, MAY BE, DUE TO THE PUNCHES HE GOT BY HIS PREVIOUS OPPONENT LIKE COTTO, HATTON SO ON.
Paulie Malli is a differenrt fighter now than he was with Buddy M.
Pualie M under his current coach is back to his usual best, don’t be suprised if paulie wins on points against Khan if the two are thrown into the ring
i think paulie is a good step for khan to prove himself. Hes not a big puncher so thats good for khan.
i think khan would have a chance against diaz and malignagie as they are both very light handed,but a still think hed be in for a realy tough fight against malignagie as malignagie seems to be back to his best.but as far as marquez and maidana go,i think they just hit to hard for khan and would likely win the fight at some point by ko.i did say in another post that i could almost gaurantee that khan and maidana wouldnt fight next,and khans proving me right once again by avoiding a big puncher.
JOKE
at least khan knows his place. he knows that fighting maidana is a dead end. play around with a feather fisted dude like paulie you wuss! at least ricky hatton had some balls.
malignaggi is so unpopular. they’re making excuses, its just not on at all. fight maidana or give the belt up, who do they think they are.
WBA have confirmed khan vs maidana according to boxrec this is starting to sound like pac vs floyd nonsence will he wont he.
kahn will beat maidana.I thought the fight would be worth more than undercard fight under bhop and jones if this true who knows at this point.
Theres only batman not linked to fighting kahn at the moment.