By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) wants to show the United States how good he is by beating former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KO’s) this Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. The problem is whether Khan wins impressively or not, he may not get the praise and adoration that he’s looking for. Khan picked out the wrong light welterweight out of the pile if he wanted boxing fans to start bowing at his feet, because Malignaggi isn’t considered to be among the very top light welterweights in the division.

To be sure, he’s ranked at number #3 by the WBA, but I totally disagree with that ranking, just as I did when the WBA had Dimitri Salita ranked at #1 recently for his title challenge against Khan last December. I personally had Salita ranked in the top 40, in the 2nd tier, not in the 1st tier and certainly not number #1. I tend to agree with Fight News with their ranking of Malignaggi at number #10 in the light welterweight division. However, I think Malignaggi should be ranked even lower than that, because I think Ricardo Torres, Kaiser Mabuza and Nate Campbell are better fighters than Malignaggi.

At any rate, I don’t see a win over Malignaggi as giving Khan the boost that he thinks it will in the U.S. Unless the HBO analysts are not commenting how Khan has selected the light hitting Malignaggi to fight rather than say WBO light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana, I see this fight doing little for Khan to win over the casual boxing fans. They won’t likely be interested because Malignaggi won’t be looking to trade and this won’t be a war like the U.S. fans are mainly interested in. Also, if the HBO broadcasters are criticizing Khan like I think they will for his choice of opponent.

Khan says “I want to beat him [Malignaggi] and be smart, be clever, and I want to send a statement out to the States, how good Amir Khan is.” I don’t think the States is going to get that message. It sounds like Khan is going to try and box Malignaggi instead of going after him. That won’t likely endear Khan to the U.S. fans. I can just see it. Both Khan and Malignaggi will be circling each other all night long, while the U.S. crowd boos their heads off at the non-action.