Khan-Malignaggi in the works

[generalbulldog]

The junior welterweight division is hot. It's loaded with a variety of interesting, exciting and marketable fighters and matchups. At the top there's titleholder Timothy Bradley, who looked awesome defending his title last week in dismantling Lamont Peterson, another quality young contender who should be back in the hunt before too long.
There's also young American titleholder Devon Alexander, who has skills, speed, a bright smile and a brighter future. From England, you have fast and powerful titleholder Amir Khan, a tremendous talent who has looked very good in recent fights, including a 76-second destruction of Dmitriy Salita in his first defense on Dec. 5. Khan is the linchpin of the division because he brings the most money, by far, because of his big following in England.
There is also slick former titleholder Paulie Malignaggi, who is already back in the gym doing some light training after a decisive decision win against Juan Diaz in their Dec. 12 rematch.
Add in titleholder Juan Urango, big puncher Marcos Maidana, former titlist Kendall Holt, prospect Victor Ortiz and the old guard of Ricky Hatton (the former champ with perhaps a big fight or two left), Nate Campbell and lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez, who likely will fight at junior welterweight against Hatton in the spring, and you have a stacked division that should produce several good fights over the next couple of years.
One of the biggest fights at 140 pounds (or, in defense to Khan, 10 stone), would be Khan against Malignaggi next year at New York's Madison Square Garden. Khan has said repeatedly that he intends to fight in the United States in 2010 and Malignaggi promoter Lou DiBella hopes to make the match.
"We want that fight. Paulie wants a big fight," DiBella told me this week. "It would be an unbelievable event for Kahn's American debut. It's perfectly conceived of because of the personalities, styles and geography. Khan wants to fight here. Paulie is a New Yorker and is as hot as he's been. I have no doubt the fight does 15,000 people at the Garden. They both can fight and they both can talk and promote."
DiBella said the fight has come up in his conversations with HBO, which hopes to put Khan on for the second time on March 6 from England as part of a split-site doubleheader with Alexander defending his belt from a venue in the U.S.
"It is not lost on HBO how big Khan coming to America and fighting Paulie in New York would be," DiBella said.
He should know about such matters. After all, it was DiBella, when he used to run HBO's boxing franchise, who engineered a similar scenario in 1997. That's when he signed England's Naseem Hamed to an HBO contract and brought him to Madison Square Garden to defend his featherweight title against New Yorker Kevin Kelley, who talks almost as much and as fast as Malignaggi. Hamed-Kelley was a great promotion and turned out to be one of the best fights of the 1990s. Hamed won via fourth-round knockout and launched himself to stardom in the United States.
"A Khan fight with Paulie is the same type of situation. You have a young British star coming here to challenge the more established American and to see if he can create star power in this country in one night," DiBella said. "After a fight between Khan and Paulie, one of those guys comes out of the fight a huge star. It's a terrific matchup. There will be the threat of Khan's power and of Paulie's speed, which I think a bit exceeds Khan's. Freddie Roach [Khan trainer] says Khan will fight him but he knows it ain't an easy fight.
"I love the Khan fight for Paulie. It reminds me so much of the set up with Hamed and Kelley, but Paulie is fresher than Kelley was. It has the making of a really big event if we can put it together."
I couldn't agree more. And the best part? It's only one possibility in a hot division that boasts so many exciting possible fights.

Khan-Malignaggi has nice ring to it in loaded 140 division - ESPN

A lot of people on this site including myself were saying that Khan's next fight which would be his American debut would be against someone that's decent but a feather fisted puncher. Lo and behold his next possible opponent.

[Kel]

Can't wait.......

[zbolt]

it's interesting to see if majority of uk boxing fans will root for amir khan or instead root for paulie

[THE THIRD MAN]

I still believe Khan should fight Katsidis!

[Violent Demise]

Fukk that. Con needs to fight Maidana. Who is the interim title holder to his belt. Malignaggi might be a bigger name but he can't fukking punch. And non-punchers is all Con has been facing since he was almost decapitated by Prescott. How can he be new and improved if he's still being protected?

[Nameless]

Fukk that. Con needs to fight Maidana. Who is the interim title holder to his belt. Malignaggi might be a bigger name but he can't fukking punch. And non-punchers is all Con has been facing since he was almost decapitated by Prescott. How can he be new and improved if he's still being protected?

I think they want to go progressively. First, a big name to foster his name in the US and to see how he reacts against a quick and skilled boxers to give him more experience. Then they will probably go against an higher banger to test his limits a bit further. Actually, I think that this Paulie fight, if it happens, is a quite damn smart move from their side.

[Mattyhitman]

And non-punchers is all Con has been facing since he was almost decapitated by Prescott. How can he be new and improved if he's still being protected?

Would ya not class MAB as a world calss puncher ? The last thing a boxer losses is his punch.

This is, in my eyes, a good match up for Amir, both have similar skill-sets, i would suggest Khan hits harder than Paulie though, and it would be interesting to see if he can get Paulie out of there quicker than either Cotto or Hatton. I would go with Khan pts or late stoppage IF this fight were to come off. IMO his sparring with Manny can do nothing but good things for him.