By Sean McDaniel: World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) wants to be a big star in the United States and is hoping to pave his way into accomplishing that goal with his fight against former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi on May 15th at Madison Square Garden in New York. But for Khan to become a big star, he’s going to have to start to face better fighters, because it’s unlikely that he’ll get the respect that he craves so badly by facing and beating fighters like Dmitri Salita, Andriy Kotelnik and Malignaggi.

Khan may be able to convince the casual boxing fan in the U.S. that he’s the real deal if he can look amazing in beating Malignaggi, but it’s not going to do much in impressing the hardcore fans of the sport, many of which who will continue to see Khan as ducking the better fighters in the division like WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana, Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander. For Khan to get fans really really admiring him and wanting to see him fight, he’s going to have face those types of fighters sooner rather than later. I

f Khan continues to face weaker guys than them, he’s going to be probably called on it by the TV analysts that cover his fights, who break it down to the causal fan watching him fight at home. This is why Khan needs to do all he can to start stepping it up after he gets by Malignaggi next month. I think that was not a good fight for him, because Malignaggi isn’t the type of opponent that is easy to look good against because of his running style of fighting.

All this fight is going to do is put more pressure on Khan to initiate and try to chase Malignaggi round the ring enough so that he can catch up to him and stop him. If Khan doesn’t accomplish that, I can see this as a fight that will hurt him rather than him help him win new fans in the U.S. Khan should have just stood up and fought Maidana, win or lose. it wouldn’t have mattered if he got knocked cold. At least Khan and the boxing fans would know where he’s at in terms of ability. If Khan can’t beat fighters like Maidana, then it’s a signal that Khan needs to move back down in weight to the lightweight division and ply his trade there or maybe stick to being a European, British or Commonwealth champion instead.