New Khan Interview: Pacman floored by Khan body punch...

By Terence Dooley, part two of a two part series, click here for part one



Amir Khan’s decision to fight Paulie Malignaggi in the first of what he hopes will be many US showcase fights was met with derision in certain quarters, many asked why Khan had opted to defend his WBA title against ‘Magic Man’ rather than the tough Argentine interim champion Rene Marco Maidana, who stepped aside in order to allow the Malignaggi scrap to go ahead, with Rene now taking on Timothy Bradley for the WBO title in July. Bradley, too, was seen as a viable first option for Khan by many boxing fans; Amir, however, is using his May 15th appearance at Madison Square Garden as a reconnaissance mission, a chance to test these new waters against a name foe.
“I want to hopefully beat Paulie in style,” explained Khan to ***********.com. “I was asked a question about fighting Timothy Bradley and I said that I didn’t want to fight him in my first fight here in America but people took that wrong. I read a few comments and people read that wrong if they think I don’t want to fight Bradley because I think he’s better than me – I just don’t want to rush things. Where do I go if I come straight over and beat Bradley? There is nowhere to go from there. This is a business and I want to fight him when I’m ready, when I’m at my peak, and not in my first fight in America.
“I want to get the feel of it first and build my name up to make it worth more. Maidana is a fighter who can’t sell tickets and Golden Boy put these two fights (Maidana and Malignaggi) to me and there wasn’t enough in the Maidana one, I may as well have fought in England, so there is a lot more in this one. This is a business, if I fight Maidana in a few fights time then we’ll both have more recognition in the States, will have built it (the fight) up a bit more, and it will be a bigger fight. Only the boxing fans know Maidana, he isn’t a big name in the boxing game at the moment - why don’t we just wait one or two fights and then fight?”
Khan feels that his new approach is a sign of his mushrooming maturity, rather than a swerve, and that this new mindset is what he needs if he is to follow in the footsteps of fellow Brit Lennox Lewis, who worked his way towards unification by taking down names one at a time in the USA. Khan wants these fights to happen; he also wants to ensure that they come to pass at the right time.
“Maidana is fighting Timothy Bradley so I could fight the winner of that one before the end of the year. I’m not avoiding anyone. I am waiting for the best time and for when it makes sense as a business,” insisted Khan.
“People might say I’m running scared because Maidana hits hard but I saw his last fight [against Victor Manuel Cayo] and didn’t see anything special in that, he is very open and was also knocked down a few times by Victor Ortiz [when scoring a sixth round stoppage win]. Maidana is an easy fight for me. Andriy Kotelnik boxed Maidana the fight before I boxed Kotelnik and gave him a boxing lesson, people don’t like to bring that up but it happened - I gave Kotelnik a boxing lesson, I also hit harder.
“That fight will happen and it is a fight that will shut a lot of critics up. When I take those fights they will be big fights for big purses. You have to look at boxing as a business, it is a short career and a short window, and you put your body through a lot in training for these fights so you want the big fights to be big paydays. Oscar De La Hoya and Mayweather build their fights up.
“Look at Mosley versus Mayweather, that could have happened five years ago but it is happening now because it is worth a lot more than it would have been worth in the past. It is not about avoiding anyone it is all about waiting for the right time, same with me and Maidana and Bradley – I’ll fight the winner of their fight and then look at [Devon] Alexander.”
Khan believes that both Maidana and Bradley have been overrated in recent times on the basis of wins over flawed fighters such as Ortiz, for Maidana, and Junior Witter, for Bradley, he has also been given the inside track on Bradley by mutual sparring partners.

 

Khan feels that his new approach is a sign of his mushrooming maturity, rather than a swerve, and that this new mindset is what he needs if he is to follow in the footsteps of fellow Brit Lennox Lewis, who worked his way towards unification by taking down names one at a time in the USA. Khan wants these fights to happen; he also wants to ensure that they come to pass at the right time.
“Maidana is fighting Timothy Bradley so I could fight the winner of that one before the end of the year. I’m not avoiding anyone. I am waiting for the best time and for when it makes sense as a business,” insisted Khan.
“People might say I’m running scared because Maidana hits hard but I saw his last fight [against Victor Manuel Cayo] and didn’t see anything special in that, he is very open and was also knocked down a few times by Victor Ortiz [when scoring a sixth round stoppage win]. Maidana is an easy fight for me. Andriy Kotelnik boxed Maidana the fight before I boxed Kotelnik and gave him a boxing lesson, people don’t like to bring that up but it happened - I gave Kotelnik a boxing lesson, I also hit harder.
“That fight will happen and it is a fight that will shut a lot of critics up. When I take those fights they will be big fights for big purses. You have to look at boxing as a business, it is a short career and a short window, and you put your body through a lot in training for these fights so you want the big fights to be big paydays. Oscar De La Hoya and Mayweather build their fights up.
“Look at Mosley versus Mayweather, that could have happened five years ago but it is happening now because it is worth a lot more than it would have been worth in the past. It is not about avoiding anyone it is all about waiting for the right time, same with me and Maidana and Bradley – I’ll fight the winner of their fight and then look at [Devon] Alexander.”
Khan believes that both Maidana and Bradley have been overrated in recent times on the basis of wins over flawed fighters such as Ortiz, for Maidana, and Junior Witter, for Bradley, he has also been given the inside track on Bradley by mutual sparring partners.
“A few of the people I’ve sparred with have sparred with Bradley and they’ve told me to take that fight now as I’ll take his head off, they say I’m faster than him and hit harder than him,” revealed the 23-year-old world titlist.
“These guys have got a bit of experience on me so I am not going to come over here and jump straight into the deep end. I have come over to the get the feel of fighting in America. I chose a guy like Malignaggi because he can sell a fight and it is a good fight to make my entry into the United States – I’ll look good.”
Maidana, seen as the kind of heavy hitting foe Khan needs to face in order to show durability and poise in the face of fire, bore the brunt of Khan’s criticism, Amir simply cannot see himself losing to a man who was defeated by Kotelnik, who, in turn, ceded the WBA title when losing handily to Khan last July.
“He is strong but you see every shot coming, he is not fast and he fights like a novice. Maidana gets his head knocked back and marks up; this guy Victor Manuel Cayo [who was knocked out by Maidana in the sixth round last month] can’t box as well as me so I couldn’t believe how awful he looked. If I was honest, after seeing that fight I’m disappointed that the money wasn’t right for the fight because if I fought him as my debut fight in America I’d do a job on him,” blasted Khan.
“All the fans and readers who are reading this article will understand, some might say, ‘Why’s he talking about the money and everything’, but most will understand that, as a prizefighter, I’ve got to work towards a prize and part of that is the big purses, the motivation behind everything is wanting the big glory but you want to retire with money in the bank.”
“You get so many fighters finishing their careers after tough, tough fights and they’ve got nothing, and no one wants to know them! You want to finish like Naseem [Hamed], even though he lost to Barrera, because he can enjoy his life now, he’s done the tough part for ten years and is now enjoying himself, same with Ricky Hatton. I’m not sure about Joe Calzaghe because he spent a lot of his time fighting in the UK. People like Oscar De La Hoya have had great careers but saw the way things were going and also had great business careers. My ambition, and goal, is to be the best in my weight division, number one, and then I can call myself a real world champion.”
Khan won his title in Manchester, made his maiden defence in Newcastle, and is now set to put the strap on the line in New York, with more US dates expected should he win this one; Amir, though, and contrary to sensationalist tabloid claims about him leaving the UK behind for good, still wants to fight in his homeland as often as possible.
“I’ve not forgot the UK”, he insisted, “a lot of people think I’ve left the UK for America but I will hopefully have my next fight in the UK and then go back and forth, mixing things up a little bit. I know that my true fans are from England. The Americans are big boxing fans but they’ve not all followed me from day one. I’ve got people at home who have followed me since the Olympic days - I’ll come back to fight in front of them.”
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