AMIR KHAN PRAISES PACQUIAO AFTER WIN OVER MALIGNAGGI

Columns

Canelo Demands $100 Million for Crawford Rematch

By Dong Secuya

When fight figures cross into nine-digit guarantees, the conversation usually turns cynica…

WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan has praised pound-for-pound king and sometime sparring partner and friend Manny Pacquiao following the Briton?s impressive 11th round TKO victory over Paulie Malignaggi at New York?s Madison Square Garden.

In an exclusive interview with insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, Khan said ?Manny is a great guy. I learned from him when we sparred and helped each other and he helped me a lot in building my confidence by working with him. He is just a nice guy.?

At the same time Khan said ?please tell Manny congratulations for winning a seat in congress and thank all the Filipinos for their support. I am sure they are all happy with the performance.?

Khan said that despite all the pre-fight statements of Malignaggi he did not let him get into his mind saying ?mentally I was strong. I just had to stick to the game-plan. The long jab worked and we stayed just ahead of him. I think I was clever and it worked for me.?

At the same time he said ?I thought the referee should have stopped the fight earlier because he was not doing anything.?

Khan said he would ?like to fight one of the bigger names next? with indications that he would take on mandatory challenger Marcos Maidana of Argentina.

Malignaggi's pre-fight statements claiming that Pacquiao was on performance enhancing drugs and by inference that Khan who trained alongside Pacquiao at times at the Wild Card Gym was also tainted even without a shred of evidence, prompted Roach to file a libel suit and conditioning expert Alex Ariza to make sure Khan shut his mouth in the fight.

By all accounts Khan was too good, too fast and hit too hard for Malignaggi who may, after the one-sided beating consider calling it quits while Khan is expected to go on to achieve bigger things following his sparkling US debut.

Top photo: Britain's Amir Khan (R) celebrates defeating Paulie Malignaggi (L) to defend his WBA super lightweight World Championship belt at Madison Square Garden in New York, May 15, 2010. Khan defeated Malignaggi in the 11th round by a T.K.O. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid.