WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KOs) wants to be a boxing superstar and is hoping to pave his way into accomplishing that dream with his first fight in the United States against former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi on May 15, 2010 at the Madison Square Garden in New York. For Amir to become a big star, he’s going to have to start to face better fighters because it is unlikely that he will get the respect that he craves for so badly by facing and defeating weak fighters like Salita, Kotelnik and Malignaggi.
Khan may be able to hype himself to casual boxing fans by beating Paulie Malignaggi, but it still won’t impress the more knowledgeable fans until he has proven himself by facing the top fighters in his division like Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander and Marcos Maidana. Khan’s managers should stop babysitting and overprotecting him, and let him face the best fighters out there in his division. If Khan continues to duck these fighters, he won’t be any diffrent than Floyd Mayweather Jr., and boxing fans will start hating him too. If he continues to be afraid, maybe he should go back to London and fight the likes of Ricky Hatton and other Commonwealth-level boxers.
