Already a household name in England, WBA junior welterweight (140 pounds) titlist, Amir Khan, appears to be ready to take the world by storm.By that, he means the United States.
The 23-year-old Khan will be making his American debut on Saturday night when he takes on Brooklyn’s Paulie Malignaggi at Madison Square Garden in an HBO-televised bout
Khan looks to improve on his record of 22-1, with 16 knockouts against the 29-year-old Malignaggi (27-3, five KOs), who will be performing in front of a hometown crowd.
“I think that a successful night would be to make a statement at the 140-pound division by showing how good Amir Khan is. After the U.S. fighters and the U.S. fans see me fight, I’m sure that my fan base will build up, and they’ll start following me more,” said Khan, who was born in England, but who is of Pakistani decent.
“My whole career, up until now, has been built up in the United Kingdom,” said Khan. “It’s good to come here and to fight on HBO. Hopefully, I can go into the ring and display a style that will get me to the next level. I have to knock him out. That’s what I want.”
Khan is among several talented fighters in what is perhaps the sport’s deepest division, one which also boasts 26-year-old WBO champion, Tim Bradley (25-0, 11 KOs), of Palm Springs, Calif., and, 24-year-old southpaw WBC and IBF king, Devon Alexander (20-0, 13 KOs), of St. Louis, Mo.
A former Olympic silver medalist, Khan candidly ranks himself behind Bradley and Alexander when it comes to how he believes his skills are perceived by comparison in the public eye.
Much of that stems from the fact that Khan was stopped in the first round of a September, 2008 clash by Colombian-born, Breidis Prescott of Miami, who entered their match up with a record of 19-0, with 17 knockouts.
“Amir gained a lot of experience with that fight,” said Khan’s trainer, Freddie Roach. “He learned not to go into a fight looking for a knockout, and he has learned how to execute a game plan and to stick with it.”
Khan has since bounced back to win four straight fights, including two knockouts and a technical decision over Mexican great and former world champion, Marco Antonio Barrera in March of 2009.
Khan debuted in the 140-pound division in February of 2009, when he dethroned Unkrainian-born, Andriy Kotelnik (31-3-1, 13 KOs) of Germany for his present title.
The victory over Kotelnik came over a man who had already beaten, hard-hitting, 26-year-old Argentinian-born, WBA interim champion, Marcos Rene Maidana (28-1, 27 KOs), dethroning Maidana as WBA champion.
Maidana has since won three straight by knockout, including those over southpaw rising star, Victor Ortiz (26-2-1, 21 KOs), and, previously unbeaten Victor Cayo (24-1, 16 KOs), each, in the sixth round.
“What Amir did as a 21-year-old fighter, winnning the title over Kotelnik, that was incredible,” said Roach of Khan, who is coming off of December’s impressive, first-round knockout of Brooklyn’s Dmitriy Salita, who entered their match up with a record of 30-0-1, with 16 knockouts.
“I thought that Amir demonstrated a great deal of maturity in that fight with Kotelnik,” said Roach. “I thought that he showed how far he’s come in a short amount of time, and he’s getting better all the time, and with every fight.”
Even more maturity has been demonstrated by Khan in association with recent developments.
Visa issues forced Khan and Roach to move their training camp to Vancouver, British Columbia, for a couple of weeks until being resolved last Friday.
In the interim, there was a failed terrorist attempt by Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-native who became an American citizen a year ago.
Khan has addressed the situation with a calm and gracious demeanor which has belied his age.
“You know all about the visa issue and everything, and I just wanted to stay calm and let it pass me. The whole training camp had to move to Vancouver, and it still went very well. You know, if you look at the bigger picture, not all Pakastanis are like that. You had the bomb scare in New York a couple of weeks ago, and not all Pakastanis are that way,” said Khan.
“Look at the direction I’m going in, being a Pakastani and a Muslim as well. People should follow in my footsteps,” said Khan. “There is a very small segment that goes down the wrong path, but there are a lot of people who do down the right path, like I do,” said Khan. “I want people to follow in my footsteps and, hopefully, see me in the way that I’m representing my country, my religion and my culture and everything.”
Khan is represented by Golden Boy Promotions, as is the 23-year-old Ortiz, who is coming off of February’s 10th-round knockout over Hector Alatorre. On the Khan-Malignaggi undercard, Ortiz will meet 37-year-old former world champ,
“I think that people see me more as an image. That helps. They see me as a face of boxing, and it’s a good thing in a way because not many fighters get to have the chance to receive all of the publicity that I receive,” said Khan.
“There are not many fighters in the situation that I’m in, and I realize that. There are other fighters with titles, but they haven’t reached the same heights as me,” said Khan. “I have to say that I’m happy for that, and I respect it for what it is. I thank the media for doing that for me.”
There is a perception, however, among fighters such as Bradley and Alexander, that Khan is a protected fighter — a notion that Roach denies.
“The thing is, they’re all good fighters, but they don’t have the Oympic background, and Amir does. They don’t have the Reebok sponsorship, and Amir does. You just can’t forget that, as an amateur, Amir did a great thing for his country by representing them in the Olympics,” said Roach.
“But look, they’ll all get a shot at him soon. After the Malignaggi fight, we’ll go out and we’ll ask for one of them. I’d like to maybe see Amir fight Maidana, and then, Bradley and Alexander could go and fight each other. And we can have a little tournament,” said Roach.
“Let’s build these guys up. You know? Victor Ortiz is a tough kid. Amir knocked him out in two rounds in the amateurs. So we’re not ducking any of those guys,” said Roach.
“Whoever we negotiate the next fight with, out of these four, five guys, it will be a great fight. I happen to think that Amir is the cream of the crop,” said Roach. “But, hey, let’s just line them up, have a tournament, and let the winners all fight each other to find out who is best. Saturday night, though, that’s our start.”
Roach has predicted that the New Yorker won’t last three rounds with Khan, but he also acknowledges that Malignaggi “won’t be an easy fight.”
“Paulie’s a mover, he can run, and he can make people look bad,” said Roach. “Plus, he can box, and he’s got speed.”
Malignaggi’s three losses were all to former world titlists, having lost a unanimous decision to Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto in June of 2006, lost by 11th-round knockout to England’s Ricky Hatton in November of 2008, and, suffered a disputed, unanimous decision setback against Juan Diaz in August of 2009.
“Malignaggi showed heart with Cotto and Ricky Hatton, so he’s a tough guy. Malignaggi’s corner stopped the fight with Hatton, but we want to be the first to knock him out,” said Roach. “We want to make a statement and show Alexander, Bradley and Maidana that we’re for real.”
Malignaggi enters his bout with Khan with the confidence of having earned a momentum-building win in his last fight in December, when he easily avenged the loss to Diaz, winning by unanimous decision.
Khan wants to relegate Malignaggi back to the loss column.
“It can be a late-round knockout. We just have to break him down, and then, we’ll know when the right time is going to be to knock him out,” said Khan.
“It can happen in the first, it can happen in the 11th, it can happen in the 12th round,” said Khan. “But any way that you look at it, the fight’s not going to go the distance, and Paulie Malignaggi will be getting knocked out.”
