Khan keeps title with dominant display
Amir Khan made an impressive American debut as he successfully defended his WBA light-welterweight title with an 11th-round stoppage of Paulie Malignaggi at Madison Square Garden.
Olympic silver medallist Khan, 23, was too quick, too strong and too clinical for former IBF champion Malignaggi as he improved his professional record to 23-1 in his first fight in front of a live US television audience.
Khan was leading decisively on all three scorecards and eventually forced referee Steve Smoger to step in and call the fight off after one minute and 25 seconds of the 11th round.
New Yorker Malignaggi's war of words with Khan had seen a tense weigh-in descend into chaos as the two camps jostled on stage in a confrontation which saw some of the British fighter's fans try to join in and resulted in Malignaggi falling off the dais through a promotional hoarding.
Neither boxer was hurt but it added an extra tension to fight night and there were isolated scuffles among the crowd of 4,412 at the Garden's Theatre venue.
In his first title defence since winning the title from Andriy Kotelnik 10 months ago, Khan had scored a first-round stoppage of Dmitriy Salita in Newcastle in December.
Malignaggi, who had changed trainers following the only previous stoppage in his career by Ricky Hatton in November 2008, had said he felt rejuvenated under Sherif Yunan and promised to be a slicker, more slippery prospect than his friend Salita.
He certainly lasted longer, although Khan looked sharper from the off, catching the American with a series of vicious jabs in the opening round, while Malignaggi had the better of it when the pair traded punches.
The second round belonged to Khan also as he began to work Malignaggi's body as trainer Freddie Roach had planned.
Malignaggi's face reddened in the third and a swelling developed in the corner of his left eye as Khan again came away the better from their intermittent yet furious skirmishes.
Malignaggi went down in the fifth although it was ruled as a slip, but Khan was still landing effective jabs, leaving the American's corner to work overtime between each round.
The seventh round saw the champion again do damage to Malignaggi with his jab, both in isolation and in combinations, although that did not stop the American smiling and sticking his tongue out in Khan's direction at the bell.
It was proving to be more or less his only weapon.
With only five stoppage wins in his career and way behind on the scorecards, Malignaggi faced an uphill struggle to get anything from the fight.
As brave as Malignaggi was, the fight was turning into a Khan exhibition and the American was seen arguing with the doctor in his corner at the end of the 10th to keep the contest going.
He was allowed to continue but for only a further 85 seconds before the contest was stopped.
