By Eric Thomas: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) feels that his planned next opponent Pauli Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KO’s) isn’t as good as him in terms of skills. Khan says “He’s [Malignaggi] not at my level. He has a few good wins in America, but it’s another fight for me and I’ll go there and do what I have to do.” Khan was planning on fighting Juan Manuel Marquez on May 15th, but there hasn’t been any contact from Marquez to Khan’s promotional company Golden Boy Promotions recently, so Khan has decided to pick another opponent for his debut fight in the U.S.

Malignaggi, 29, has a number of good wins during his nine year pro career, beating Edner Cherry, Lovemore N’dou, Herman Ngoudjo, and Juan Diaz. Malignaggi has lost some fights, but only to against the best fighters in boxing. Malignaggi was beaten by Miguel Cotto in a 12 round decision loss in June 2006, Ricky Hatton by a 11th round TKO in November 2008, and a questionable 12 round decision loss to Juan Diaz in August 2009. Malignaggi would later on avenge the defeat by Diaz in a 12 round decision win last year in December 2009.

Certainly an argument can be made that the charismatic Malignaggi has been only beaten twice in his career by Cotto and Hatton. There’s no shame in losing to either of those fighters. Those would be tough fights for even a talented fighter like Khan to have to deal with. I think Khan has it in him to beat Hatton and Cotto, but they would be a handful none the less.

Khan has some recent history with Malignaggi after the two went at each other in a hilarious Twitter war recently. Both Malignaggi and Khan took turns flaming each other. Khan usually isn’t one to respond to criticism from fighters, but something in Malignaggi’s insults brought it out in Khan.

If he has it his way, Khan would like his fight against Malignaggi to take place at Madison Square Garden, in New York. Malignaggi is from New York, and Khan wants to beat him in front of his own fans. Khan says “I want to fight him [Malignaggi] in his home town and beat him in his home town in front of his own people.” It looks like Khan is still a little upset over some of the remarks that Malignaggi made towards him. One of the things that Malignaggi said about Khan is that he thought he was afraid to fight WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana. Malignaggi said if it was him, he’d fight Maidana.

Khan says “When it does happen, I’m just going to go in there [Madison Square Garden] and do what I normally do. I think Malignaggi has a style which is going to make me look good.” Malignaggi doesn’t have much power and tends to use a hunt and peck style of fighting rather than trying to slug it out with his opponents.

It’s important that Khan not only beat Malignaggi, but beat him impressively so that Amir can win fans in his debut fight in the United States. If Khan is made to struggle against Malignaggi or lose, it will make it much harder for him to become a huge mega star like his hero Manny Pacquiao.