By Sean McDaniel: The whole it seems in WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan being put in with former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi for Amir’s debut fight in the United States is for the British fighter to look good in winning, so as to pick up a bunch of new fans. But will Khan look good against a fighter like Malignaggi and if he does look good, what happens when Khan is matched tough? Maybe Khan’s promotional team aren’t aware of this or not, but Malignaggi often makes his opponents look really bad.

They’re probably looking at Malignaggi’s losses to Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto, as the reason why they think he’ll be perfect for Khan. Malignaggi fought his heart out in both the Hatton and Cotto fights, but he just didn’t have the power to compete with them. In the case of the Hatton fight in 2008, Malignaggi took a lot of punishment late in the fight and was ultimately stopped in the 11th round.

Cotto had to struggle a little more for his win over Malignaggi, but succeeded in battering him in the process. Khan may have to battle a lot harder than his management expects in beating Malignaggi, and it could come down to Khan winning a controversial decision.

In that case, I doubt Khan will win any fans. That’s the problem in facing a guy like Malignaggi. He’s an excellent counter puncher and is very good at making his opponents look like stupid oafs. Khan can’t afford to look bad in winning or losing. If he wants to win over the U.S. fans, Khan has to go to war every time and look invincible. He doesn’t just want to be a good star.

That’s the thing. If Khan ends up just barely beating guys like Malignaggi while at the same time avoiding opponents like knockout artist Marcos Maidana, then Khan may never be a huge star in the United States, even if the American public are force fed Khan on HBO telecast after telecast. There are countless examples of fighters that have been shown on HBO multiple times, yet fans remain lukewarm about them.

Could this be Khan’s fate if he fails to look good against his handpicked opponents? For a fighter to become a start, they have to be matched against the very best opponents over and over again, and they have to shine in beating them. If Khan is put in with older fighters, ones with zero power at the expense of better ones, Khan may never be the mega fighter that people are hoping he’ll be.