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.
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