Terence Crawford vs Amir Khan: Paulie Malignaggi believes Khan will be 'beaten up' on April 20

The pair meet at Madison Square Garden in less than a month

Paulie Malignaggi believes that Terence Crawford will both outbox and 'beat up' Amir Khan in their welterweight fight next month.

The pair meet on Saturday, 20th April at Madison Square Garden in New York City for the WBO title - as Khan looks to become a two-time world champion but in his bid to do just that faces one of the pound-for-pound greats in world boxing.

Crawford comes into the bout as a three-weight world champion and looks to make the second defence of his belt before a potential showdown with fellow undefeated American fighter Errol Spence, who simply outclassed Mikey Garcia last Saturday night, winning every single round of the 12.

Malignaggi knows exactly what Khan can bring to the table, having been a former sparring partner of the Briton and an opponent in the ring - having been stopped by him back in 2010, but the American-Italian thinks that this fight comes too little, too late for the 32-year-old.

“There was a time when Amir was impossible to outbox, you had to take the fight to him,” Malignaggi told Starsport.

“I think at this point he’s kind of gotten a little bit past it and he’s starting to slow down.

“And because of that, Amir can be not only outfought but now he can also be outboxed - and that’s a shame that the fight is happening now where Amir’s diminished himself to that point.

“So I don’t really give Amir much of a chance. A few years ago I would have thought this was a great fight, but I don’t think so anymore."

Having lost four fights in his career - three by knockout at the hands of Breidis Prescott, Lamont Peterson, Danny Garcia and Canelo Alvarez, Malignaggi believes that this potential defeat will be different as for the first time in his career, Khan will be outboxed before being finished.

"When Amir’s lost by knockout, he’s not taken beatings because he’s got himself caught and just got knocked out. But I think the potential for taking a beating in this fight is there, because Amir can now be outboxed. Whereas before he wasn’t really able to be outboxed, you just had to catch him, but now Terence can actually beat him up and, again, it’s because Amir has kind of fallen off more so than what Terence is gonna be doing.

Amir Khan was dropped by Samuel Vargas in September (Getty)

“Terence could have been doing great things and it would have been a great fight a few years ago, but now it’s just one-sided for me.”