BOXING:WORLD CHAMPION Amir Khan and Paulie Malignaggi continued their war of words ahead of Saturday's WBA light welterweight title clash with the British fighter pledging to make his American opponent eat his words.
Bolton’s Khan (22-1, 16 KOs) and New Yorker Malignaggi (27-3, 5 KOs) have been engaging in a furious exchange of taunts via their respective Twitter feeds during the build-up to this weekend’s fight and the trash-talking resumed face to face last night during the final pre-fight press conference at Madison Square Garden.
Khan (23) will make his American debut when he defends his belt at the Garden’s Theatre venue, having stated he wanted to come to America to fight the best in the 140lb division.
And when the 2004 Olympic silver medallist came head to head with Malignaggi (29), for the first time since a London press conference in March, he sat calmly as the American former IBF light welterweight world champion sent him a warning. Referring to his 2008 loss to Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas, and his improvement since then under new trainer Sherif Yunan, Malignaggi said: “I’ve trained real hard for this fight and it’s exciting for a lot of reasons.
“Obviously it’s a world championship fight but I made some statements after I lost the Ricky Hatton fight that that wasn’t me. It wasn’t me all that year actually, 2008 didn’t go real well.
“After I changed my team around, though, I came back in 2009 and looked different again.
“I understand that 2008 was the year I was probably most under the microscope because I had a world title and I was being trained against the grain, being told to box differently to how I had boxed my whole life. But in 2009, I came back, did what I had to do and this is redemption.
“This is what I was waiting for. Nobody thought I was going to be back in a world championship fight. This is an opportunity to beat a champion that everybody is saying is so great and the future and all this.
“But after the fight on Saturday night I don’t want to hear anyone saying Khan was over-rated, or he got stuck in Vancouver, I don’t want to hear anything like that.
“He said he wants the biggest fights in America and he wants to fight Paulie Malignaggi. Well, be careful what you wish for.”
Khan responded in kind, saying: “Paulie talks too much and I’m going to have to shut him up. I’ve fought a lot of guys who talk a lot but he has to be the number one guy for talking. I just can’t wait to beat him and shut him up properly so he’s going to end up thinking about not coming back.”
On Monday, Khan had said he has enjoyed the trash talking with Malignaggi, called by his own manager Lou DiBella “the mouth that roared” because he thought the American was acting out of fear.
“It’s quite funny really when you hear the remarks. I think when a fighter talks a lot of trash he’s probably scared or he’s trying to put something in my head to scare me.
“Paulie’s not one of those fighters who talks trash to sell a fight. He’s doing it because I think he’s under a bit of pressure and he’s got a bit of fear in him,” added Khan.
