Ben Smith

Amir Khan produced a thrilling performance on his American debut at Madison Square Garden with an 11th-round stoppage of Paulie Malignaggi.

The British fighter dominated from the third round onward using his left jab to push Malignaggi onto the back foot. Khan’s brutal combination of speed and strength proved too much for his Brooklyn-born opponent and Khan vowed to unify the light-welterweight division after retaining his WBA title.

“I’m making 140lb easy, I feel strong,” Khan said. “I’m not leaving 140lb until I unify the title. Until I’m number one I’m not going to leave this division.” Speaking about the fight with Malignaggi, Khan added: “We stuck to the game plan, we knew Paulie is a very awkward fighter, he’s a great boxer, great at moving.

“We had to break him down slowly, we didn’t want to run in there trying to knock him out because we would have got caught with shots. I knew in the last few rounds I was hurting him and all I had to do was put the pressure on him.”
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Malignaggi paid tribute to Khan, adding: “I don’t know if I’m getting old, I’m 29, I didn’t feel old. Amir just came and fought a very good fight, very busy, a lot of angles. He kept me at distance.

“When I turned pro I had a very similar style to Amir and I ran into a clone of myself, he was stronger, bigger and faster. He was very busy, I couldn’t keep up with him I guess, I couldn’t get the distance right.

“He had that youthful enthus