By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach is starting to sound like a politician in speaking about his fighter WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) after his 11th round TKO win over Paulie Malignaggi (27-4, 5 KO’s) last Saturday night. Roach, who trains Manny Pacquiao, Khan and a number of other stars in the boxing world, had this to say about Khan’s win over Malignaggi in an article at Sportinglife, “I think Amir was great for HBO, great for an American audience and it was great for him as a man. It was a long, tough fight and the experience will guide him to bigger and better things. You need fights like this.”

Roach is doing a heck of a job of putting a spin on what Khan accomplished in beating the 29-year-old Malignaggi. After all, this was an opponent that was selected for Khan to make him look good against for the American public. They didn’t put Khan in with a big puncher like WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (28-1, 27 KO’s), who Khan probably should be fighting.

The American public really didn’t get much to see last Saturday because in picking the weak punching Malignaggi as Khan’s first opponent to fight in his debut fight in the United States, they selected for weakness and weeded out fighters that would have been much more competitive against Khan and perhaps beaten him. Instead, we have Khan rolling over a weak puncher in a fight that was excruciatingly boring, even more dull than watching the horrible undercard fight between 38-year-old Nate Campbell and the young 23-year-old Victor Ortiz.

The card was painful to watch because of the many mismatches it contained. You had Khan beating an over-matched Malignaggi, Ortiz defeating 38-year-old Campbell, Daniel Jacobs destroying Juan Astora in one round, and Breidis Prescott crushing Jason Davis in three. The other fights weren’t hardly worth mentioning because they had obscure fighters.

Roach’s number #1 fighter Manny Pacquiao could be near the end of his career and Roach is grooming Khan to be his next star. The problem is Khan’s chin is fragile and he has to be handled with care. But Roach can’t keep him on training wheels forever. The American public has to see whether Khan is really good or just a pretender. Thus far, Khan hasn’t been put in with anyone that can really test him other than Presscot, who destroyed Khan in one round.