By Jim Dower: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) had an easy time in beating Paulie Malignaggi (27-4, 5 KO’s) in an 11th round stoppage at Madison Square Garden, in New York on Saturday night. With the ringside doctor checking on Malignaggi from the 10th due to the one-sided punishment he had taken in the fight, the referee finally stopped the bout at 1:25 of the 11th with Malignaggi taking shot after shot against the ropes and not throwing anything back.

The bout lost any real interest after the 6th round, when Malignaggi stopped throwing anything but jabs. With nothing really to worry about in terms of power shots, Khan was able to tee off on Malignaggi using an assortment of punches. Khan mainly his powerful jab to do much of his work, but would also throw in some mean right hands every now and then.

Malignaggi’s defense completely failed him in this fight, as he was unable to get out of the way of Khan’s fast punches. That was the main problem. Khan was too fast and was able to get his shots in before Malignaggi could back away. Malignaggi’s bad habit of keeping his hands down by his sides really hurt him in this fight, because he was hit repeatedly by shots that he might otherwise could have blocked had he at least had his hands up in front of his face.

The fight probably should have been stopped by the 8th round, because Khan was really pounding Malignaggi by this point in the fight. However, Malignaggi continued to fight and take punishment round after round until the bout was finally halted in the 11th. By then, Malignaggi’s face was red and swollen.