Kevin Kelly says Maidana is the hardest puncher he’s ever been in with

By William Mackay: Former WBC featherweight champion Kevin Kelly is very impressed with the punching power of Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) and thinks his next opponent, World Boxing Association (WBC) light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s may be in big trouble when they fight on December 11th. Kelly had the opportunity to spar with Maidana not too long ago, and wasn’t impressed with him after the first round. However, in the 2nd round Maidana suddenly opened up with a little bit of his power and Kelly describes it this way in a Youtube video:

“It felt like he kicked me. I the the man is the hardest puncher I’ve ever been in the ring with. He hits like a building fell on top of me. This man hits abnormally hard.”

Kelly recognizes that Khan has improved with new trainer Freddie Roach and is less inclined to make the same mistakes that he made in his crushing 1st round knockout loss against the lanky knockout artist Breidis Prescott in 2008. However, Kelly thinks it really doesn’t matter if Khan fixes his mistakes or not, because he will have to trade with Maidana at some point in the fight. And he thinks Maidana hits too hard for Khan to survive even a little bit of exchanging with Maidana.

He says that Khan will have to actually fight Maidana if he wants to beat him, and that’s the whole problem. Maidana hits too hard and Khan’s chin is so vulnerable that he’ll likely not be able to survive even the minimal exchanging with the power punching Maidana. Kelly is right. Khan can’t beat Maidana by running laps around the ring all night long throwing nothing but jabs. He’s going to have to fight Maidana to beat him.

I don’t think Khan can even move for 12 rounds without stopping and trading at some point in the fight. He looked exhausted with the minimal amount of moving he did against the light punching Paulie Malignaggi in his last fight. Kelly, by the way, wasn’t impressed with Khan’s win over Malignaggi. He feels that win didn’t prove anything about Khan. I agree. All it proved was that Khan can beat a light puncher.