By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) wants to become the number 1 pound for pound fighter in the world and he’s hoping to get a fight against unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the near future if Khan can get by World Boxing Association light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) and then the winner of the January 29th bout between Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley.

The problem for Khan is that he’s got a weak chin and has been put in soft ever since he was blasted out by Breidis Prescott two years ago. In other words, Khan’s ambitions seem to outweigh his physical capacities of his body to take hard head shots. For Khan to beat Maidana, he’s going to have to take huge head shots at one time or another in the fight for him to win. Even with his trainer Freddie Roach training Khan to dash around the ring all night long like a sprinter, he won’t be able to escape getting hit hard.

As we saw in one of Roach’s trained fighters Manny Pacquiao in his win over Antonio Margarito last weekend, it’s simply not possible to avoid punishment. Pacquiao was tagged hard and often by Margarito in that fight. Khan will have to be able to take big head shots for him to win the Maidana fight, and that’s where the problem is for Khan. He just doesn’t seem to have the chin made for the job.

In an article at the telegraph.co.uk, Khan says “I hope he [Maidana] trains hard because it’s the toughest fight he will ever be in. You know I’m training hard and I’m sure the best man will win the fight. I let my fist do the talking. I’m not gonna give too much away. I’ll just be ready on the night.”

I have a feeling that this will be one of the easiest fights of Maidana’s career, not the hardest like Khan seems to think. I believe that Victor Ortiz was the toughest fight of Maidana’s career. He was able to knock Maidana down several times in the first couple of rounds and continued to give him a problem until the 5th when Maidana took over the fight with his big power shots. Maidana lost to Andriy Kotelinik, but that was a fight which Maidana should have won but lost by a hometown decision to Kotelnik.