Can Amir Khan-Quer the Light Welterweight Division?

On May 15, WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1) made his debut in the U.S., fighting outside of the United Kingdom for the first time in his entire professional career. He came to fight former champion Paulie Malignaggi (27-4), in his backyard at Madison Square Garden.

Malignaggi has heavily relied on his superior boxing ability and speed to win his fights, due to his lack of power. It has worked very well for him with quality wins over fighters such as Lovemore N'dou and Juan Diaz.

Enter Amir Khan.

Amir Khan is a 2004 Olympic silver medalist, who was ESPN 2007 prospect of the year and well on his path to superstardom, until he met Breidis Prescott, who knocked him out 54 seconds into their lightweight bout in September of 2008.

Since that loss, Khan has recorded five consecutive wins against names such as Marco Antonio Barrera and Andriy Kotelnik. On Saturday night he added Paulie Malignaggi to that list.

He showed superior boxing ability against a grade A boxer. Khan worked all night behind a solid jab, snapping Malignaggi’s head back, and showing excellent hand speed, foot work and power sailing to an easy 11th round stoppage.

So, the question is does Amir Khan have what it take to rule his division?

He just may.

With the ability Khan brings to the ring every night he fights, and one can only assume, being only 23, his skills will become even sharper as he matures as a boxer.

However, all of that aside, there may be one thing that will help him more than any of the before mentioned attributes of this fighter, and that was the hiring of trainer Freddie Roach.

Yes, Freddie Roach, the same trainer that has helped elevate the career of seven-division world champion Manny Pacquiao.

This will play a key role into how much success Amir Khan will have as a fighter. Roach knows how to game plan for almost any fighter that you match on of his pupils against.  He has also been Khan’s trainer during his five fight win streak since that setback knock out loss to Prescott.

Now that Amir has made his splash, having a successful debut in America, we will see how he stacks up against Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, and other key players in the light welterweight division.

That being said, there is one thing left to be questioned of Amir Khan… his chin.

But I’m sure Marcos Maidana would be more than willing to help answer that question.