By Mark Vester
Trainer Freddie Roach is predicting a dominating knockout win in Amir Khan's second defense of the WBA junior welterweight title. Roach's champion is making his American debut on May 15 at New York's Madison Square Garden against former champion Paulie Malignaggi. Roach doesn't think Malignaggi will able to deal with the power and pressure and sees him folding within three rounds.
"Training camp is going great, great sparring partners. We just brought in Vernon Paris from Detroit and Amir is doing quite against these guys who fight like Paulie. They are more offense then Paulie but Amir deals with it. But once Paulie feels that pressure, he's going to run. Paulie won't last three rounds with Amir," Roach told BoxingScene.com's Ernest Gabion.
"We are going to go out there aggressive. We are going to make a statement and put our stamp on America and we're going to go to his hometown to do it."
Some have called the fight a battle of power vs. skill. Roach doesn't think so. He says Khan blows Malignaggi away in every category, including boxing ability.
"Amir is way more skilled. We beat this guy all around in every area. We are more skilled, have more power, faster. Paulie's mouth got him this fight and that's it, period. He can talk better than us," Roach said.
"I know he's a tough guy but that can only take you so far. The game-plan I have set for Amir, [Malignaggi] won't last long. Three [rounds] at most."
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