By Scott Gilfoid: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan will be holding a press conference in London on Friday along with Paulie Malignaggi to announce their May 15th bout at the Madison Square Garden, New York, New York. This will be the 23-year-old Khan’s debut fight, and he wants to make a favorable impression on the American public by beating the 29-year-old Malignaggi. The Khan-Malignaggi fight will be shown on HBO, which will allow millions of boxing fans a chance to see Khan fight for the first time. If he fails to impress in this fight, then he has a lot of work to do to pick up fans in the U.S.

Malignaggi is about as weak a puncher that can be found for Khan at this point in the top 15, and if Khan is to become the big star that his trainer Freddie Roach and Golden Boy Promotions hope he will be, Khan will have to start stepping it up against better fighters with more power than Malignaggi. While Malignaggi is a former IBF light welterweight champion, there are younger, more powerful fighters in the division than him who would present a very grave threat to Khan if and when he eventually fights them.

Khan is being brought along slowly to prevent him from being knocked out again like was against Breidis Prescott in 2008, but he’s going to have to be managed very carefully because of his weak chin to keep him away from certain fighters like Marcos Maidana, Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley, Victor Ortiz, Ricardo Torres, Mike Alvarado, Kendall Holt, Juan Urango, and Randall Bailey. As long as Khan is kept away from those fighters, he should do all right and be able to fight well.

The good news is that the WBA, the belt that Khan currently holds, only has Ortiz, Maidana and Alvarado below Khan. He won’t have to fight Maidana for at least year, possibly longer if Maidana loses to contender Victor Cayo on March 27th. However, Khan will still have to probably face Ortiz and Alvarado at some point. Those will be tough fights for Khan to win, because he would have to be able to take at least dozen hard shots every round to get a victory.

I don’t have faith in his ability to take those kinds of shots, even in low numbers. Likewise, if Maidana gets by Cayo later this month, Maidana could be a knockout waiting to happen for Khan. I don’t see Khan being able to run enough to get a win over Maidana. Eventually, he’ll catch up to Khan and plant him. But Khan could get lucky if Maidana is out-boxed by the tall Cayo this month, because Cayo is a weak puncher, and Khan would stand a much better chance against him than he will if he’s forced to fight Maidana.

Malignaggi is a name fighter for Khan. I don’t see Malignaggi as ever being able to win another belt in the light welterweight for the remainder of his career. The division has improved dramatically since Malignaggi won the IBF title over Lovemore N’dou in 2007. I see Malignaggi as more of an opponent for the light welterweight champions to get easy wins against without having to face the danger of taking on tough punchers like Maidana, Bradley, Ricardo Torres, Randall Bailey, Holt, Alvarado and Ortiz.

Khan should be able to beat Malignaggi without getting dropped. However, if Khan is put down or stopped by Malignaggi, then I think it might be a good idea for Khan to consider retirement. If he can’t beat a weak puncher like Malignaggi, then there’s no way he’ll be able to make it through fights against Maidana and Ortiz. I see it as a race against time. Khan will make money up until he’s finally matched against one of those aforementioned fighters. Once that happens, I see Khan being destroyed and along with it the gravy train.