Like so many boxers before him, Amir Khan has arrived in the United States seeking the twin pillars of success: fame and fortune.
The junior welterweight champion from Britain is armed with a charming personality, natural charisma, 24-karat smile and an almost unparalleled ability to throw a stiff right cross.
Yet none of that matters here, at least not yet.
Because even though Khan is well known in Europe, where he's fought his entire career, he is starting all over in America. His fight Saturday night on HBO against Paulie Malignaggi would have filled the biggest arenas in London, but only about 7,000 fans will squeeze into the small theater at Madison Square Garden to see him defend his title.
That's fine with Khan. He realizes what the future might hold.
``I think after this first fight, more people will get to see Amir Khan fight and we'll get more recognition,'' he says. ``I know I have the power to do that in America.''
The 23-year-old former Olympian also knows it won't be easy. That much became clear when it took several weeks and a trip to Canada just to get the paperwork to fight in the U.S.
He'd been preparing with trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles under a tourist visa, but his application for one that would have allowed him to work was ensnared in red tape. Khan went to the British consulate in Vancouver, British Columbia, to expedite the process, but he was constantly stonewalled by the Department of Homeland Security.
``I knew he was going to get it, I just didn't know when,'' Roach said of the visa.
Neither did his promoters, nor the executives at HBO, who grew more nervous as the days melted away. It reached the point where the fight was only a day or two from being called off.
Then the news came Friday that Khan's work visa had been approved, without any reason given for the delay. He assumes it had something to do with his Pakistani heritage - his grandparents migrated from the Punjab province to England in the 1950s - and the investigation linking the Pakistani Taliban to the recent failed Times Square bombing.
Whatever the reason, Khan doesn't think the ordeal was much of a distraction.
``The whole training camp moved to Vancouver. I actually liked it because you're in a new environment, a new scene, a new gym,'' he said. ``Sometimes you are in a training camp for six, seven weeks and you get bored. It was nice to get away.''
The focus now returns to Malignaggi, a former titleholder who has shared the ring with some of the best fighters in the world.
Malignaggi essentially goaded Khan into taking the fight, even though he wanted a matchup with Juan Manuel Marquez instead. The brash, Brooklyn-based boxer has tried to get under Khan's skin the past few weeks, belittling Roach as a trainer and calling his opponent ``Amir Con.''
``I'm going to enjoy sinking my punches into Khan,'' Malignaggi said last week. ``Some fights are just business, but not this one. I'm going to enjoy every punch I land.''
Malignaggi doesn't believe in the hype that has followed Khan since he was an amateur, pointing to his first-round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott in September 2008 as evidence the Briton hasn't earned his laurels. Malignaggi doesn't believe in the blazing hand speed that won a silver medal in Athens, nor the punching power that earned Khan a chest full of amateur awards.
``When we had a press conference, he was quite cocky, quite disrespectful,'' said Khan, whose sharp wit can at times be just as acerbic. ``People want to see him get beat.''
Meanwhile, Khan's lone loss is becoming more an aberration and less a harbinger with every victory. He's won four straight fights, knocking out Oisin Fagan, dominating Marco Antonio Barrera, lifting the WBA title from Andriy Kotelnik, then defending it in a rout of previously unbeaten Dmitriy Salita last December in Newcastle, England.
In that bout, Khan (22-1, 16 KOs) knocked Salita down 10 seconds into the first round, three times total, and forced referee Luis Pabon to wave it off after just 76 seconds.
``He's the kind of fighter that would like to fight the biggest and best names in the sport,'' said Khan's promoter, Richard Schaefer. ``He has an exciting style, he has the looks and charisma outside the ring, and he's in a weight class where there's a lot of big potential fights. The stars are aligned. All the necessary ingredients are there to become a big superstar.''
That is precisely what Khan dreams about.
He scaled to the top of the Empire State Building on Monday and smiled for the tourists on the observation deck, even though few of them knew his name. He snapped photographs with two New York City police officers on the sidewalk in front of the United Nations, even though they knew he was a boxer only by the gaudy championship belt his team carried around.
Khan is certain that will change eventually. People will know his name. He'll be able to breeze right through an airport without being stopped by security, and smiles at the thought.
``I've always been stopped for like, an hour, because of my name,'' Khan says, almost pensively. ``Maybe one day they'll let me walk right through security. They'll say, 'We don't need to stop you, man. We know who you are. Go on through.'''
