By William Mackay: After beating light welterweight contender Paulie Malignaggi last Saturday night by an 11th round stoppage, WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) is looking into the future at bigger things, saying “I hope they [American boxing fans] love my style and I want to fill stadiums and arenas like I did in the UK.” Khan appears to be putting the cart before the horse in his eagerness to become a huge star in the United States. He just beat Malignaggi, a good B+ fighter, and already Khan is talking about huge things like filling stadiums.

Khan has yet to face the cream of the crop at light welterweight and is looking way ahead of himself at bigger things. You can’t blame Khan for wanting to fill stadiums and arenas. That’s something worthy to aspire to. However, at this point it seems rather silly given that Khan has only faced the following fighters at light welterweight: Andriy Kotelnik, Dmitri Salita and Paulie Malignaggi. The names that Khan will have to beat for him to become a star in the light welterweight division are fighters like Devon Alexander, Marcos Maidana, Victor Ortiz and Timothy Bradley.

If Khan can beat those guys, he could be a star but that’s a big ‘if’. Khan has to fight those guys first, beat them and look impressive enough for the U.S. fans to want to flock to see his fights. I still don’t think Khan will be a big enough star to sell out stadiums even if he beats those guys. None of those fighters are huge stars in America and so beating them won’t likely do as much as Khan thinks it will in building a huge fan base. For that to happen, Khan would have to fight guys like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao and beat them.

It doesn’t count if he fights them and gets drilled into the canvas. Khan would have to actually beat them to become a huge star. It took many years for Mayweather and Pacquiao to become huge stars in the U.S. and they had help by having a big named opponent like Oscar De La Hoya to fight for them to become stars. Khan has no such fighter like that in the light welterweight division and he likely will only lose when it comes time to fight Pacquiao and Mayweather. Also, there’s a big chance that Khan will be beaten by Bradley, Alexander, Ortiz and Maidana and will never get to the level of fighting Mayweather and Pacquiao. Instead of focusing on a dream that may not be realistic, Khan should try and take things one fight at a time and just try to keep winning without getting knocked out again.