Amir Khan of Britain retained his WBA super lightweight title on Saturday in a one-sided beating of New Yorker Paulie Malignaggi when the referee stopped the bout in the 11th round at Madison Square Garden.
The 23-year-old Briton (23-1) pounded Malignaggi (27-4) from the opening round, matching the New Yorker’s renowned quickness, but hitting with far more power and accuracy.
Khan, making his US ring debut, won every round on all three scorecards.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Khan quieted chants of “Paulie, Paulie” and “USA, USA” from Malignaggi’s hometown crowd at the Theater at the Garden with his virtuoso display.
Landing stinging jabs, crunching left hooks and bristling combinations, Khan caused swelling around the challenger’s left eye, a welt under his right and red marks on his forehead and cheeks, although there were no knockdowns in the bout.
Action was also fierce among the crowd of 4,500, where partisans got into scuffles that kept security guards busy, much like the fracas that erupted during the boxers’ weigh-in.
The ring doctor checked on Malignaggi after the 10th round, but the challenger was allowed to continue fighting.
With Khan swarming all over Malignaggi on the ropes, referee Steve Smoger stopped the scheduled 12-rounder after 1 minute, 25 seconds of the 11th.
“I ran into a clone of myself when I was younger,” the 29-year-old former IBF junior welterweight champion said.
■KATSIDIS V MITCHELL
AP, LONDON
Michael Katsidis retained the interim WBO lightweight title by stopping Kevin Mitchell in the third round by technical knockout on Saturday.
Katsidis inflicted Mitchell’s first defeat in 32 fights in a bout in front of a 14,000-strong crowd at the ground of West Ham United, the soccer club supported by the Londoner.
Mitchell caught Katsidis with a left hand early in the third round, but the Australian hit back, sending Mitchell back onto the ropes more than once, before stunning him with a left hook that led to referee Dave Parris stopping the fight.
■WLODARCZYK V FRAGOMENI
AP, LODZ, POLAND
Poland’s Krzysztof Wlodarczyk snatched the vacant WBC cruiserweight title from Giacobbe Fragomeni with an eighth-round technical knockout of the Italian on Saturday.
Wlodarczyk sent the 40-year-old Fragomeni to the canvas a second time in the round and Fragomeni quit.
The first knockdown came in the sixth from a right hook by Wlodarczyk to Fragomeni’s left temple.
They were fighting for the second time after their first bout for the title finished in a draw in May last year in Italy. Fragomeni lost the title in November last year by a decision to Zsolt Erdei, but the belt became available again.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite