De La Hoya thinks Khan can become the “Next great champion”

By William Mackay: At the recent press conference with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan and Paulie Malignaggi to announce their May 15th fight at the Madison Square Garden in New York, Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya was positively gushing over his new Golden Boy fighter Khan, saying “We strongly feel Amir Khan can be the next great fighter to come out of England. He has a tough challenge in front of him, but we want to prove to the world he can become what we think he can become – that is a great champion.”

De La Hoya believes that he can make Khan a huge star in the United States and have him fighting the top fighters in boxing in a short time, such as Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. But for De La Hoya to do this, he’s going to have to be very careful in who he matches Khan against. The British fighter has already been knocked out in the 1st round in 2008 when he was matched against the tough Colombian Breidis Prescott.

Khan seems to do well against fighters with moderate to little power, but has problems against fighters who can bang a little bit. Khan has only been in with one fighter who can punch, and that’s Prescott. The results were negative for Khan. If De La Hoya is going to make a huge mega star out of Khan, he’s going to have to maneuver him skillfully through the landscape of the light welterweight division to avoid having Khan derailed again like he was against Prescott.

The light welterweight division is for the most part a weak division, hence Khan has already been able to pick up one of the four titles with a 12 round decision win over the weak-punching Andriy Kotelnik last year. However, for Khan to keep the WBA title, if that’s what De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions has in mind for him, he’s going to have to face some tough opponents like Marcos Maidana, Victor Ortiz and Victor Cayo.

Khan doesn’t have to fight Devon Alexander or Timothy Bradley, because both of them hold the other light welterweight titles. Of course, there will be a lot of people calling for Khan to fight a unification bout against Bradley and Alexander, but Khan technically doesn’t have to fight them and still would be able to hold down his WBA title without being stripped by the World Boxing Association.

However, Khan will have to face Ortiz, Maidana and Cayo at some point in the future. It’s anyone’s guess what will happen to Khan when he is eventually put in with them.

De La Hoya, speaking about the Khan-Malignaggi fight, says “We are witnessing history in the making. This event can be the fight of the year.” It could be, but with Malignaggi mostly a runner/spoiler type of fighter, I wouldn’t hold my breath on that happening. More likely, the Khan vs. Malignaggi fight will be an ugly affair, with both fighters doing a lot of running, holding and slapping with their punches. Khan isn’t a big puncher, although he’ll seem like it compared to the feather-fisted Malignaggi on May 15th.

Compared to the recent fights between Bradley and Lamont Peterson and Alexander and Juan Urango, I can’t see the Khan-Malignaggi fight showing the same kind of back and forth action as those fights. Khan doesn’t like to get hit and neither does Malignaggi. This could wind up as a really boring fight and a big turn off for Americans in Khan’s debut fight.

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