First impressions are the most lasting.
Just as a job applicant seeks to impress a future employer by wearing his best suit, ensuring his shoes are shined and hair is neat and tidy, Amir Khan will don a dazzling pair of new trunks and flaunt his aesthetically appealing style in an attempt to woo and captivate a more discerning clientele with his first bout on American soil.
In the UK Khan certainly has his detractors ?some attribute it to blind ignorance or even bigotry?but his support continued to grow in tandem with his rise up the boxing rankings. He regularly sold out arenas the length and breadth of England whilst often contributing adequate pay-per-view numbers.
But of course it would be folly to assume this would automatically translate into Khan being a box office draw across the pond.
Ricky Hatton, Lennox Lewis and Naseem Hamed may have captivated the American boxing fan but there also remains the cautionary tales of Frank Bruno, John Conteh and Ken Buchanan who were just as unsuccessful in the ring as they were at satisfying the epicurean palate of those in attendance.
So it is that Khan attempts to follow the same route that many British fighters before him have attempted to negotiate. It is accepted within the boxing fraternity that no boxer?s resume receives a stamp of approbation until they have achieved success on American soil. The Bolton bomber has long since braced himself for business on the Highveld.
Khan remains relatively obscure to American fight fans. To many inside the US he is referred to as ?Manny Pacquiao?s stable-mate?. Fights against ?top-tier fighters’?or so Frank Warren would have us believe?such as Dmitriy Salita and Andrei Kotelnik hold no lustre in the US. Hence the sudden urgency to announce himself in a marquee bout live on HBO.
What seems to be a poor turnout and rather labored American interest only serves to make Khan?s task that much more difficult. Like a dancer seeking to impress a thoroughly disillusioned judge his standard may always fall short.
It must have been extremely hard for legendary fighters such as Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson or Hank Armstrong to envisage any World Title fight in New York failing to sell out. Unfortunately that is what we are faced with today.
Therefore, Khan?s two objectives in his American debut, i) Fight a top-tier fighter who has notoriety amongst boxing fans and scribes; and ii) Put on a performance worthy of recognition-both in and out of the ring; seem to be as tasking as they are unlikely to be fulfilled.
Paulie Malignaggi was selected as befitting of the first objective. Khan will go into the brash Brooklynite?s back garden, the fabled Madison Square Garden, to defend his WBA World Light-Welterweight crown this Saturday night.
Not only does Malignaggi?s standing and notoriety fulfil Khan?s first priority but his fighting style and outspoken nature could contribute consummately to a tick being registered against the second objective.
The pre-fight bickering has escalated dramatically culminating most recently with doping allegations being levied at Khan from the loose-lipped New Yorker. Malignaggi is extremely content to operate in the moral vacuum where anything goes. Machine gun taunts fire out of his mouth in rapid succession, faster than a New York minute. He has little time for diplomacy or platitudes and his pre-fight musings flirt dangerously with bad taste.
But as the ever-sagacious Ricky Hatton once said ?This isn?t a tickling contest.?
To Khan?s benefit, Malignaggi?s musings have created a compendium of controversy, which, in turn, has galvanised interest in their flagging encounter. It also leaves less of a burden on Khan in the self-promotions stakes. By allowing Malignaggi to continue with his own self-perpetuating hype it overshadows Khan?s gauche and awkward attempts in a department that has become boxing?s main promotional tool.
The fight itself, which seems to have been lost in this cacophony of hyperbole and concomitant calumny, poses an intriguing prospect. Novices and sceptics point ignorantly to Malignaggi?s lack of punching power as being the deciding factor. But the New Yorker has the requisite tenacity and skill to frustrate someone overly eager to impress.
Of course Malignaggi manufacturing a knockout is about as likely as Lebron James announcing he?s leaving the NBA this off-season to play in the English Basketball league, but one must also point to the ?Magic Man?s dogged perseverance against heavy-hitters in the past. His bout against Miguel Cotto left him with a face that wouldn?t have been out of place in a Wes Craven horror movie, but still he lasted until the final bell.
A tough assignment. But it is one worthy of Khan?s standing as a World Champion his ranking within the Light-Welterweight division, and his undeniable precocious talent.
One only hopes that the American boxing fans will fix their gaze long enough to notice
