Khan has New York date in his sights
4:59pm Thursday 11th February 2010 in Boxing By David Magilton
BOXING: Amir Khan has confirmed he hopes to make his US debut against Paulie Malignaggi at New York’s Madison Square Garden on May 15.
Rumours of Khan’s next opponent have been rife since he joined forces with American promoters Golden Boy last month, with Marcos Maidana — the mandatory challenger for his WBA light-welterweight title — and Juan Manuel Marquez mooted as potential candidates.
But having already made one mandatory defence with a 76-second stoppage against Dmitriy Salita in December, the Bolton boxer was looking to take on a bigger name than Maidana for his first bout in the States and with Marquez believed to have rejected an offer to fight, the 23-year-old has now turned his attention towards Malignaggi.
“May 15 is the date that I have, the fight will be in America, and opponent — we are looking at Malignaggi,” Khan said.
“We were looking at Marquez, who pulled out, so it’s Malignaggi up to now and we want to hear what he thinks about the fight. Golden Boy have put the fight to his promoter Lou DiBella, so we will see where we go from here.
“I want to fight him in his home town (New York) and beat him in his home town in front of his own people.
“The fight has not been made 100 per cent yet but I think there is a very good chance of it happening.
“When it does happen, I’m just going to go in there and do what I normally do and I really think Malignaggi has a style which is going to make me look good.
“He’s not at my level. He has a few good wins in America, but it’s another fight for me and I’ll go there and do what I have to do.”
Khan insisted he was avoiding nobody and revealed there were several names on his hitlist as he aims to make a splash in the US.
“Marcos Maidana was the mandatory, but the WBA have said that because it would be two mandatories back to back, they can’t really do that, so they have not put that as a mandatory fight,” Khan said.
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