Schaefer: “There is already a tremendous demand for [Khan-Malignaggi] tickets”

By William Mackay: Despite World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan having never fought in the United States before, there is already a big demand for tickets to his fight against former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi on May 15th at Madison Square Garden, in New York. In an article at the Guardian, Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, says “We [Khan] have concluded a deal to fight Paulie Malignaggi. There is already a tremendous demand for tickets, and we anticipate that it will be a sellout. We were thrilled for Amir that he signed with us. But those criticizing him should hold off. He insisted he wanted to come to the U.S. and fight the big names. For him to start his career in New York, at Madison Square Garden, against an accomplished fighter, is exactly what he wanted.”

An argument can be made whether Malignaggi is an accomplished fighter or not. He did win the International Boxing Federation light welterweight title, that’s true. However, Malignaggi didn’t hold onto the title for very long, and fought a number of less than stellar opposition and won some controversial victories. Malignaggi ended up vacating his title to fight Ricky Hatton and was promptly dominated and stopped in the 11th round in November 2008.

You can say that Malignaggi accomplished some things, but his time holding the IBF title was brief, and I can’t see Malignaggi ever winning another title at light welterweight. Many boxing fans wanted to see Khan face WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana instead, but I guess he’s not accomplished enough for Khan to fight, even though he is the WBA interim champion, which I suppose is an accomplishment. Maidana also defeated top light welterweight contender Victor Ortiz last year in one of the most exciting fights of the year. Malignaggi has lost two out of his last four fights, but I guess he’s more accomplished than Maidana.

Schaefer continues “He [Khan] is really serious about taking on all comers in the division and at 147 in the next few years, and wants to challenge himself.” Well, that’s nice to see. I guess that means that Khan will be fighting Maidana next and then Timothy Bradley after that. Don’t count on it. Khan won’t be fighting Maidana next. I have no idea who it will be, but I seriously doubt it will be Maidana.

And I don’t think it will be Bradley, Devon Alexander, Juan Urango, Ricardo Torres or even Kendall Holt. Khan and Golden Boy were hoping to match Khan up with 36-year-old lightweight Juan Manuel Marquez, but after initially showing some interest in fighting Khan, Marquez went quiet and didn’t follow up and pursue the bout. Marquez looked poor in moving up in weight recently in a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year, losing a one-sided 12 round decision to Mayweather.

It seems pretty obvious why Marquez would suddenly be an appealing opponent. Malignaggi has zero power, and thus is no threat to hurting or stopping Khan. This should be a win for Khan unless his chin is worse than I thought it was. After that, it will be interesting to see whether Khan takes on all comers like Schaefer says or if he continues to be matched against light hitters and opponents he can easily beat.

In his last fight, Khan defeated Dmitri Salita in a 1st round knockout. In looking at how slow Salita was, it’s hard to believe that the WBA actually had Salita ranked at number #1 in the light welterweight division.