Amir Khan (22-1) vs. Paul Malignaggi (27-3) Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY WBA Jr. Welterweight belt
The fight between Khan and Malignaggi will be on Saturday, May 15, 2010. This will be the day that any speculation and giving out of war words from the two boxers will be over. This is the event that you should wait for as the two brightest stars in the super lightweight division will come face to face. Amir Khan is the super lightweight World champion while Paulie “The magic man” Malignaggi is the former world title holder. The event will be held at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. This is the hometown of Paulie Malignaggi and we are going to look if this will go with his advantage or his opponent Khan will defeat him in his own land. http://www.buzzblab.com/boxing/00266/amir-khan-vs-paulie-malignaggi.html
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978239291 Amir “King” Khan must have packed his favorite tea and crumpets, because he looked right at home in his first stateside fight, handily defeating Brooklyn’s Paul “Magic Man” Malignaggi Saturday by TKO in the eleventh round. Khan, out of Bolton, England, improves to 23-1 with 17 KOs and retains his WBA light welterweight title, while Malignaggi drops to 27-4. Don’t be thrown off by the late stoppage. The whole fight belonged to Khan, who was fighting outside the United Kingdom for the first time ever. He used his two inch height advantage and superior ring skills to outclass Malignaggi, who is no bum by any means. Unlike earlier in his career, Malignaggi remained planted in the center of the ring and did not use his familiar foot work of the past to evade Khan’s punishment. Whether this was by design or a result of aging legs I can’t say. His last twelve fights have either gone the distance or been stopped in the eleventh round. The last time this happened was against Ricky Hatton in 2008. Khan was impressive with a lead left jab that consistently found Malignaggi’s face all night, followed up by power right hand shots that sent Malignaggi into defense mode. Malignaggi tried his typical formula of counter punching when Khan went to work but only connected a few meaningful shots all night. He wouldn’t initiate the action, because that is the kind of boxer he is, and by the ninth and tenth rounds his corner was harping on him to get busy for a knockout. It’s not easy to do for Malignaggi, who is in no way a power punching threat. Also in the later rounds, Khan stepped up the pressure and was really putting a beating on Malignaggi to the point the ringside doctors nearly stopped the fight between the tenth and eleventh rounds. Malignaggi, a tough and proud Italian American, repeatedly said he was fine to continue and the ref warned him he’d have one more round to improve. Nothing really changed as the eleventh round started, and with Malignaggi backed against the ropes Khan unleashed a furious combination that brought the ref in to stop the fight. A day after a weigh-in brawl in a Manhattan ballroom, Malignaggi and Khan showed unwavering respect towards one another after the fight and embraced for a long period of time. During his post-fight interview, Khan remained firm about staying in the 140-pound division until he was number one in the world. A possible three-match tournament was proposed in the ring whereby Khan would face Marcos Maidana next, Timothy Bradley would face Devon Alexander separately, and the winners would face each other. My interest is piqued and I would love to see it happen. The undercard featured a truly boring fight between the 23 year-old “Vicious” Victor Diaz and the 38 year-old Nate Campbell, the “Galaxxy Warrior” in another 140-pound fight. Diaz was looking to redeem himself after last June’s loss to the aforementioned Maidana. Diaz led most of that fight and put Maidana on the canvas three times but was criticized as seemingly quitting after Maidana stormed back and left Diaz’s face a wreck. Facing a man fifteen years his senior to earn back that respect didn’t really do it for me. Campbell moved forward the whole fight but had no offense to speak of. He covered up so much you could barely see his face, save for some peek-a-boo moments behind the leather. Diaz didn’t need to use a jab whatsoever. He just waited for Campbell to take his place right in front of him before unloading power shots on the covered up head of the older fighter. He worked a few good shots in during the fight but would have been much better off working the exposed body of Campbell, whose defensive efforts were solely focused on his head. After dealing with a series of shots to his cover, Campbell would drop his hands and let Diaz know there wasn’t much damage done, which actually seemed to be the case unlike most fighters who use this tactic. The only problem is Campbell never followed up with any offense. His jabs were lofted out there like slow pitch softball and his strong hand was used in looping punches that Diaz easily avoided. In the end, neither man had noticeable damage nor did they look terribly tired. Diaz won every round of the ten round match and improved his record to 27-2-1. Campbell dropped to 33-6-1 and he’ll either need to fight smaller time fighters or stop boxing in my opinion. Diaz looked technically sound but he needs better competition if we are to believe he is as good as the hype around him. Put him back against Maidana so he can finish what he started or maybe even Malignaggi at this point. Malignaggi can’t hang with the top level boxers, which Amir Khan will probably end up being, but he would represent a good step up for Victor Diaz.
