By Sean McDaniel: Former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KO’s) may be one of the top 10 fighters in the light welterweight division, but I think he’s going to have problems making it out of his May 15th fight with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) on his feet. I think there’s a better than average chance that Malignaggi is going to end up badly beaten and stretched out on the canvas by the end of this fight.

Malignaggi, 29, is too weak of a puncher and won’t have the kind of fire power needed to keep Khan off of him. Khan is the kind of fighter who if he doesn’t respect your power, he’s going to tear into you with power shots and blazing combinations that will hard to stand up against. Malignaggi has good movement, hand speed, but he’s missing the needed power to compete in this fight.

If Khan has nothing to fear, which he doesn’t in this fight, then he’s going to be all over Malignaggi from the word go, nailing him with shot after shot. I think Malignaggi is going to need some kind of plan B to fall back on if he finds himself getting riddled to pieces in the first two rounds. He can’t afford to wait longer than that to find a back up plan, because Khan will probably be sitting down on his punches and looking to take his head off with every shot. Malignaggi was in big trouble in his fight with Ricky Hatton in 2008. He took a lot of punishment from Hatton for 10 rounds until the fight was stopped in the 11th.

Hatton is obviously a good puncher, but Khan in some ways is an even better puncher than Hatton. What makes Khan a much more dangerous threat is the speed of his punches. It’s hard to track his shots because when he’s throwing combinations he’s able to land a lot of shots in a real hurry and it’s almost impossible to block them. Malignaggi, without any power, is going to be getting hit a lot, even if he chooses to run for 12 rounds. Khan will have the foot speed to catch up to him and hammer him with big shots.

Malignaggi was able to finish his fights against Hatton and Miguel Cotto on his feet, but he took an enormous amount of punches in both fights. However, I think Malignaggi is going to get put down by Khan and stopped with him on the canvas looking up at the lights. Khan wants a knockout too much in this fight, and has the offense, speed and the youth to accomplish it. His trainer Freddie Roach also wants Khan to win impressively, and has probably given him marching orders to go out and destroy Malignaggi as quick as possible. This fight could end up being over very quick unless Malignaggi can find some power to get Khan to respect him a little. it’s going to take some risk taking from Malignaggi, but he’s going to have to throw some power shots to get Khan’s attention as early as possible in this fight.