By Jim Dower: Just days after being stopped in the 11th round by World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan last Saturday night, Paulie Malignaggi is now sounding like he’s considering retirement from boxing. On his Twitter page, Malignaggi had this to say about the fight and his future: “I honestly don’t know what I will do now, I have a lot of thinking to do, I will take along vacation and re-evaluate life. I’m just happy and blessed that my life turned out the way it did. Will see where the light at the end of the tunnel takes me.”

Malignaggi is sounding like he’s at peace with the thumping he received against Khan. The fight was so one-sided that it left little question about how much better Khan was compared to Malignaggi. The outcome leaves doubts about Malignaggi’s career. He could continue to fight, but it’s unlikely he would have much luck against the younger and stronger fighters in the division like Marcos Maidana, Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander. As it was, Malignaggi beat a handful of top fighters in his prime like Herman Ngoudjo and Lovemore N’dou, but did it less than convincingly. He never fought guys like Ricardo Torres or Kendall Holt, so it’s really hard to say how good he was in his prime. I think Malignaggi would have had a lot of problems against Torres and Holt had he fought them. If Khan, who is not a big puncher, was able to batter Malignaggi, then Torres and Holt would have likely given him a lot of problems with their power.

Malignaggi had this to say about Khan:

“I know me and Khan had a lot of words before the fight, but this is boxing people! If you don’t like what we have to say to each other than either don’t watch boxing or turn off your computer. This is boxing, you’re going to see two fighters talk s**t…I have tons of respect for Khan and I want to wish him the best of luck, he is a true champ and a great fighter. I expect big things to happen with his career, and I will be looking forward to see him in the future. He will make this sport proud. That’s the way life is, sometimes we win and sometimes we lose, I tip my hat off to Khan, he showed heart.”

Malignaggi tried his best to beat Khan, but in the end he didn’t have the power to compete with him. This is why Malignaggi was selected in the first place as Khan’s opponent. The only way that Malignaggi could have beaten Khan was if he turned into Maidana, Breidis Prescott or Victor Ortiz over night and landed one of his big punches on Khan’s sometimes fragile chin. But Malignaggi didn’t have the power, and that’s why he was selected.

If Malignaggi decides to continue fighting, he has a long hard road ahead of him at light welterweight. With faster, stronger and bigger punchers in the division, its difficult seeing Malignaggi serving any other purpose besides being a gatekeeper fighter. To be sure, he might get a title shot against one of the champions in the future because he is after all better known than most of the top contenders and champions in the division. However, I can’t see him beating any of the champions at this stage in his career and I seriously doubt he would have any luck against Alexander or Bradley even if he was in his prime still.