Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana: An Honest Analysis

By Boxing News - 10/04/2010 - Comments

By Castillo Fuentes: I’ve come across a lot of writers on this site (whom I won’t name just to save their respect-if they have any left) who are always taking numerous shots at WBA light-welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1 17 KO). Recently, Khan agreed to a fight with the electrifying Argentinean, Marcos Maidana (29-1 27 KO), on December the 11th in Las Vegas on HBO. Obviously, one can say that Khan’s chin will be tested, because, as the record suggests, Maidana is capable of knocking out a racehorse. Albeit, I cannot stand the comments regarding Khan. The anti-Khan crowd in this site has mentioned everything from Khan getting gutted in the opening rounds to making fun of his diet, stating that “…Khan is going to eat his way out of the light welterweight division just like he did with the lightweight division.” Comments, especially like these ones, aren’t necessary at all, because this site is intended for boxing purposes only. Sadly, some of the anti-Khan crowd appear to not possess a life, writing at least one article every two or three days regarding the young Briton.

I, unlike these writers, can give an honest opinion while not taking shots at the boxers. One thing that I am sure about this fight is that it is going to be electrifying, with a boxer going up against a brawler. Amir Khan represents a stalwart in the light-welterweight division, ranked number two by Ring magazine and number three by ESPN’s Dan Rafael. Maidana, on the other hand, is also up there, at number four in both ESPN and Ring magazine. Maidana’s only loss came off the hands of then-WBA light welterweight champion, Andreas Kotelnik. Many thought Maidana had won that fight, losing by a controversial decision. After Kotelnik regained the belt, he travelled to Manchester, where a hungry Amir Khan was waiting. Kotelnik was easily outclassed by the younger, faster, and slicker Khan, en route to a lopsided unanimous decision loss, 120-108, 118-110, and 118-110. Khan’s only loss comes at the hands of the heavy handed Colombian, Briedis Prescott. Khan was floored twice in the fight, losing at 54 seconds in the first round.

The question now is whether Khan’s chin can hold up against Maidana, since he has been put in with relatively weak punchers since the Prescott debacle. Maidana is a very high pressure fighter, and doesn’t mind at all fighting on the inside, where as Khan would be content on using his enormous speed advantage, and fight from the outside. What Khan has to do is relatively simple, which is that there should be speed in both his punches and movement. He has to keep Maidana on the back foot, and he can only accomplish that by firing three or four punch combinations and getting out of there, while shielding his chin. Maidana proved that he cannot face a real good boxer, such as Kotelnik and Victor Cayo. Cayo was outboxing Maidana pretty well until he got knocked out by a body shot in the sixth round. Maidana has to trap Khan against the ropes and use that brute power to make up for his lack in boxing skill and movement, because Khan will outbox him all night long if Maidana decides to be tentative,

In my opinion, the x-factor in this fight becomes Khan’s underrated power. Maidana has shown the ability to get hurt in his fights, as he was floored three times before coming back to win in the sixth round. Khan has seventeen knockouts, and is the only person to actually knock out the tough talking, tougher chinned Paulie Malignaggi.

My final analysis here is that Khan will use his jab to keep Maidana at bay. Nonetheless, this fight is going to be a good one: Khan by unanimous decision, 118-110, 118-110, 117-111.



Comments are closed.