By William Mackay: World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) believes that he could have stopped Juan Manuel Marquez if the 36-year-old Mexican fighter had opted to fight him instead of deciding not to fight the 23-year-old Khan. In an article at Rte Sport, Khan says “Malignaggi was the first choice but he pulled out and then they went for [Juan Manuel] Marquez. I think I could have been the first man to knock Marquez out. That would definitely have made a statement because he went the distance with Floyd Mayweather.” Khan forgets to mention Manny Pacquiao as another fighter who couldn’t know out Marquez.
It’s hard to see Khan stopping Marquez, no matter how old he is at this point in his career, if fighters like Mayweather and Pacquiao couldn’t stop Marquez. If anything, I think Khan himself would likely be the one getting knocked out if he went into a fight against Marquez trying to slug it out with him instead of circling the ring all night long. Khan isn’t a big puncher and gets his knockouts by throwing flurries for the most part.
Khan has never stopped what I consider a 1st tier fighter. Khan stopped Dimitri Salita, who ranked number #1 by the WBA, but I think that was a case of a fighter being positioned at the top without having ever proved that he really belongs there. At the time that Salita fight Khan, Salita had fought exclusively 2nd and 3rd tier opposition his entire eight year career. It would have been better had the WBA waited until Salita had actually beaten someone in the top 15 before they shoved him to the number #1 position.
As a result, Salita was taken out in the 1st round and looked horribly over-matched in the fight. That wasn’t because Khan is a huge puncher, but rather that Salita was way over his head in this fight. Salita is now ranked number #9 by the WBA, incredibly ranked ahead of fighters like Andriy Kotelnik and Ricky Hatton.
Khan will be fighting Paulie Malignaggi on May 15th at the Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York. This will be Khan’s big U.S. debut, and he wanted to have a star fighter like Marquez to fight, even though Marquez was beaten soundly in his last fight against Mayweather last year. It would have given Khan a fighter with a name to fight.
Marquez obviously didn’t like the idea of being used to make a name for a younger fighter and backed away from the fight, which was being set up by their mutual promoters Golden Boy Promotions. Malignaggi, 29, isn’t nearly the same fighter Marquez is, but he did hold down the IBF light welterweight title for a brief spell before vacating it to fight Ricky Hatton in 2008.
Khan thinks that he’ll be able to stop Malignaggi. He may succeed at that, because Malignaggi can’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag and isn’t much of a threat. There are better fighters in the light welterweight division with more power and raw talent. However, Malignaggi is better known than those fighters, and obviously less of a threat to dent Khan’s chin like Breidis Prescott did in 2008.
Khan says “I want to be the main attraction in American.” That’s nice. But for Khan to do that, he’ll have to fight and beat light welterweights like Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, Marcos Maidana, and Victor Ortiz. Until Khan beats those guys, he won’t be the main attraction unless he’s marketed hard to the casual fans. Khan could in theory become the main attraction in the U.S. even if he’s matched against soft punchers for the remainder of his career.
Khan will have to have all of his fights shown on HBO or one of the cable networks, and he’ll have to have the right type of opponent that he can look good against. It might not work well for him if he’s matched against a big puncher like Maidana. In the future, Khan might be better off ditching his WBA title and fighting without a title, so he’s not forced to fight mandatory opponents.
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