By William Mackay: Paulie Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KO’s) sees himself as the main draw in his May 15th fight against World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s). In an article at the Guardian, Malignaggi says “[Khan’s] not known in the U.S. yet. He hasn’t fought in the U.S. yet, son how are they going to know him? Every time people come up to me and say Hey, Paulie, who are you going to fight? And I say Miguel Cotto or Ricky Hatton or Juan Diaz and the go ‘Wow.’ But when I say this guy’s [Khan] name, they say, ‘Who’s that?’ They ask is he a contender and I have to tell them he’s a world champion.”

Malignaggi, 29, seems to be clearly bothered by the fact that the 23-year-old Khan is being brought in to their fight at the Madison Square Garden in New York as the main attraction instead of him. Khan will be getting the bigger money, even though few people aside from hardcore boxing fans have even heard of Khan.

Additionally, HBO will be showing Khan’s fights in the future, as long as he keeps winning and can get by Malignaggi. It’s easy to see why Malignaggi bristles at Khan getting treated well and getting a lot of the attention.

However, what Malignaggi fails to see is that Khan has been a big fish in a small pond in England for the past five years since he turned pro after winning the Silver Medal in the 2004 Olympics.
Malignaggi points out that Khan hasn’t even fought anyone in the U.S., and feels that he and Khan are at the same level because of his inexperience at fighting here.

Malignaggi is overlooking that Khan has a bit more power than him, and has a little bit better hand speed. But beyond those two things, there’s not much to separate the two fighters other than Malignaggi’s better experience at higher age. Malignaggi feels that Khan will be known after their fight on May 15th, and that next time people see him in the U.S., they’ll see him as the fighter that was beaten by Malignaggi.

Khan isn’t happy with the trash talking that Malignaggi has done and vows to take it out on Malignaggi in the ring when they fight. Khan realizes it’s gamesmanship by Malignaggi, but says he doesn’t want to get involved with that kind of thing.