Amir Khan vs Paulie Malignaggi: Amir Aspires To Beat Malignaggi in His US Soiree
English welterweight titleholder Amir Khan is aspiring to defeat Paulie Malignaggi on his home turf.
After winning his Olympics silver in 2004 he has moved to the US for greater achievements.
"Its always been my dream to fight here in the U.S. and I know there will be a lot of pressure on me not fighting in front of my U.K. fans, but I made a name over there and now I'm ready to come make a name for myself here," Khan said.
He is scheduled for his second defense opposite the former titleholder Malignaggi at the Madison Square Garden Theater on Saturday.
Meanwhile junior welterweight Victor Ortiz will have his third fight opposite titlist Nate Campbell. Campbell was earlier beaten by titleholder Tim Bradley.
Khan, unlike his other compatriots like Joe Calzaghe, Ricky Hatton didn’t want to fight in the US at a later part of his career. "A lot of fighters in the U.K. leave very late in their career to come to the U.S.," Khan said.
"You look at Calzaghe and Hatton, I think they were over [40 fights] when they had their debut. I want to do it early. I think I won a world title a lot quicker than most British fighters because I trained at [Freddie Roach's] Wild Card Gym in L.A.
Amir's always had the option of staying back in UK and remain a star there but he wanted to fight with the very best opined golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer. In fact he almost missed it because he had to leave Los Angeles to go to the consulate in Vancouver to handle paperwork related issues regarding work visa. After much bureaucracy he managed to get the visa and managed to return to Los Angeles. But like they say all’s well that ends well.
"I really wanted the fight at the Madison Square Garden. I think it's the Mecca of boxing," Khan said. "I've been to a fight there. There've been some huge fights over in the Madison Square Garden. He had earlier vanquished mandatory challenger Dmitriy Salita in 76 seconds in his first defense in December.
"I'm fighting a guy who is very experienced, who is well-known in New York, and I'm going to be fighting him in his own backyard and hopefully be the guy to beat him there as well," Khan said.
A similarity between Khan and Malignaggi to Hamed-Kelley is that Malignaggi, like Kelley, feels lower esteem as the B-side of the fight in his own hometown. The way the fight has been promoted has also left him disappointed.
