By William Mackay: Alex Ariza, the strength and conditioning coach who works with trainer Freddie Roach and Manny Pacquiao, wants World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan to destroy Paulie Malignaggi when the two fighters meet up in two months in a title match on May 15th, at the Madison Square Garden. Ariza, according to Insidesports.ph, is upset with some of the comments that Malignaggi made Pacquiao in the past. Ariza says “I want him [Khan] to destroy Malignaggi for what he’s said” [about Pacquiao].

Malignaggi reportedly hinted about Pacquiao using some kind of performance enhancing drugs, and Ariza wants Khan to make Malignaggi feel the pain because of those comments from Malignaggi. Ariza will be helping Khan to get ready for the Malignaggi fight, and believes that Khan will beat Malignaggi, saying “I know he [Khan] will. I know so. He’s got a full eight weeks for the camp, and I’m going to put him through hell.”

Ariza probably doesn’t need to go to any extremes of putt Khan through a hard camp of exercises, because this is a fight that Khan should be able to win without too many problems just with a normal training camp. Malignaggi can’t punch his way through a wet paper bag, and is more of a finesse fighter. He’s lost two out of his last four fights and seems to be on the downside of his career.

Beating Malignaggi shouldn’t be a problem for Khan, unless Amir’s chin is weaker than I thought it was. This is a fight that was selected by Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters of Khan, to get him a name with the American public. Malignaggi was selected because he’s well known with the hardcore boxing fans and somewhat known to casual boxing fans on the East coast of the United States.

Malignaggi isn’t considered dangerous like some of the arguably much better light welterweights in the division like Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, Marcos Maidana, and Victor Ortiz, to name a few, and hence Malignaggi was picked over those fighters to be the opponent for Khan. Amir says he wants to fight the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao within the next 18 months.

The only question that needs to be answered is who Khan will be fighting in the next 18 months to build up to fighters like Mayweather and Pacquiao. There are only so many Malignaggi, Dmitri Salita and Marco Antonio Barrera types to go around before Khan would have to eventually fight someone that is young and dangerous.

One would hope that Khan will finally be put in with a live body before he gets to the point where he’s set up with a mega fight against some of the big stars of the sport. Khan may not have to, though, because he’s a huge star in the UK, and seems to be popular regardless of who he fights or doesn’t fight. His fans just like to see him fight, period.