By Chris Williams: Although the contracts still haven’t been signed for the proposed fight between World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) and Paulie Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KO’s), it’s looking like this fight will be taking place on May 15th at Madison Square Garden, New York, New York. This will be the debut fight for Khan in front of what could be a large American viewing audience on HBO. As of now, few Americans outside of the hardcore boxing fans have heard of Khan. Malignaggi, 29, is better known because his fights against Miguel Cotto, Lovemore N’dou, Edner Cherry, Herman Ngoudjo, Ricky Hatton and Juan Diaz have all been televised.
They haven’t been exactly thrilling performances by Malignaggi, but in most cases he’s come out the winner. Khan needs to make an impressive statement against Malignaggi for the British star to begin building a name for himself. One way for Khan to do that is to try and knock Malignaggi out in style. In 2008, Hatton stopped Malignaggi in the 11th round in a one-sided fight. If Khan can improve upon that performance, he could win over a great number of fans.
Malignaggi has an excellent chin and has never been stopped while on the canvas. Khan, with his power and hand speed, could open some eyes if he can put Malignaggi down for the count and have him finishing the fight on the deck. For that to happen, though, Khan is going to have to take off the controls that have been put on his offense by his new trainer Freddie Roach.
Khan won’t be able to knock a fighter like Malignaggi by jabbing him and using movement all night long. Khan will have to revert back to his old style of fighting in which he threw a lot of combinations and pretty much blitzed his over-matched opponents. This would be the perfect opportunity for Khan to do that, because Malignaggi doesn’t have the kind of power to hurt Khan and take him out like Breidis Prescott did in a 1st round knockout in 2008. If Khan gets knocked out or put down by a light hitter like Malignaggi, then I don’t know if Khan will be able to ever become the big star in the United States that his promoters Golden Boy Promotions are hoping he’ll be.
I don’t expect Khan to be able to run over Malignaggi like he did against his last opponent, Dmitri Salita. Malignaggi is a lot better than Salita, with a better chin and hand speed. However, as Hatton showed in his win over Malignaggi, if you can keep batter him with hard shots late in the fight, Khan could wear him down and force a stoppage. Khan looked really good in dropping Salita with a hard right hand in the opening seconds of his fight with him in December.
If Khan can land a shot like that early in the fight, he might get lucky and be able to stun Malignaggi. I kind of doubt it, because Malignaggi has both a good chin and sound defense, but it’s worth a try. Khan needs to unload everything on Malignaggi in this fight and forget about defense. He’s got to focus on his letting his hands go because his performance against Andriy Kotelnik in winning the WBA title was quite dull. I can’t imagine boxing fans in the U.S. becoming sold on Khan if he beats Malignaggi while looking like that.
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