By William Mackay: Former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KO’s) says that WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) is in for a beating on Saturday night in their May 15th bout at Madison Square Garden in New York. Khan, a former Silver Medalist from the 2004 Olympics, is coming into this Saturday’s fight as a favorite to win by gambling sites. However, Malignaggi thinks that Khan is making a huge mistake by choosing him to fight and is looking to knock Khan out and send him packing back to Britain, where he comes from.

In an interview by Greg Leon of Boxing Talk Malignaggi says “He’s [Khan] going to catch a beating on Saturday night…They think they’ve got something and I believe they’re way off. We’ll find out on Saturday night. I’ll tell you what, though. If he’s not every bit as good as they say he is, he’s going to catch the royalist of ass whippings. If he’s as good as they say he is he’ll make the fight competitive. I feel so sharp that if he’s not every bit as good as they got him cracked out to be, he’s going to catch a beating that he won’t forget until the day he dies.”

Wow! Malignaggi sounds pretty confident, almost as confident as the 23-year-old Khan is going into this Saturday’s fight. Khan’s confidence is at another level, however, because he’s not seeing this fight as a competitive one and has lately been looking into the future a year from now, salivating over dream fights against mega stars Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Khan is overlooking not only Malignaggi, but the wins against top light welterweights like WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, IBF/WBC champion Devon Alexander and WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana.

Khan can pick whether to fight Bradley and Alexander or not, but if he plans on keeping his WBA title, he’s going to be forced to fight Maidana at some point in the near future or risk being stripped. The best possible thing that could happen would be for one of the top light welterweights, preferably one with zero power like Malignaggi, to come along and beat Maidana. This would save Khan from having to risk his brittle chin in what would likely beat a very tough fight against Maidana. However, if Khan is to get his big fights against Mayweather and Pacquiao, he has to accomplish the first tiny step in getting there by beating Malignaggi convincingly.

Malignaggi isn’t worried about Khan’s punching power, and points out that Khan hasn’t beaten anyone in his career other than a bunch of obscure lightweights. Malignaggi says he’s got a chin, which will help him. Malignaggi feels that Khan’s biggest weaknesses are “He’s inexperienced and he’s got no chin. Literally he got no chin. He’s been out on his feet against nobodies.” Malignaggi intends on making Khan suffer on Saturday before knocking him out. He doesn’t just want to stop him immediately, because that would be too easy for Khan. He wants to make it last longer, saying “We’re going to marinate his ass and then blast. First we’re going to beat his ass real good then we’re going to knock him out.