What happens to Khan when Maidana lands one of his power shots?

By Boxing News - 11/24/2010 - Comments

Image: What happens to Khan when Maidana lands one of his power shots?By William Mackay: many of WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan’s supporters are absolutely certain that Khan will be able to easily out-box World Boxing Association light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana on December 11th when they battle at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Indeed, Khan’s fans are so certain that he’ll win the fight that many of them have the believe that Maidana won’t even land one of his power shots in the fight. Some actually believe that Khan’s chin has gotten better in the past years since he was last knocked out by Breidis Prescott in 2008.

These fans buy into Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach’s belief that Khan got knocked out easily by Prescott because Khan had skinny legs and was struggling too hard to make the lightweight limit. I for one think that’s a bunch of bull. Skinny legs or fat legs doesn’t explain why someone gets knocked out. It’s purely neurological, and I don’t think for a second that Khan’s chin has gotten any better since the Prescott fight. I have noticed that Khan’s opposition has gotten a lot weaker since that fight in terms of punching power.

I wonder if Khan’s loyal fans have ever considered the possibility that the reason he hasn’t been getting knocked out in his last five fights is because fighters like Paulie Malignaggi, Oisen Fagan and Dmitri Salita aren’t huge punchers and were thus tailor made for a fighter like Khan with a weak chin.

I’m really wondering what will happen to Khan when Maidana lands one of his best right hands in this fight. I’m not in the belief that Khan will be able to run around for 12 rounds without getting hit once by one of Maidana’s power shots. Since it’s pretty clear that Khan won’t get through this fight without getting hit by a really hard shot, since that’s all that Maidana throws, what happens to Khan when he gets hit? Does he take it over and over again without staggering and falling down like he did in the Prescott fight? Or does Khan collapse in heap on the canvas after getting hit with a certain amount of big shots?

If I’m looking at this from a conservative outlook, lets say that Maidana lands five really hard shots in every round. I’m talking really powerful punches, much harder than the shots that Prescott landed on Khan. Will Khan be able to take those five shots without going down and counting stars? I’m being conservative here, because I certainly see Maidana landing more than five punches per round. But you can see what Khan is up against in this fight. He’s really got to have the chin to take these shots because no amount of running on Khan’s part will prevent him from getting hit hard at least five times per round.

This isn’t a young Roy Jones Jr. we’re talking about here. Khan is very hittable, even with his new running style taught to him by Roach. I just don’t see Khan being able to take those five shots without ending up being carried out of the ring on a stretcher. I hope Roach has the ring smarts to throw in the towel early in the fight when Khan starts getting pummeled by Maidana. Roach was quick to point out that Antonio Margarito’s trainer Robert Garcia should have stopped the Pacquiao-Margarito fight to save Margarito from taking unnecessary punishment. Well, I wonder what he’ll do when the shoe is on the other foot and Khan is the one getting beaten up? Will Roach stop it to save his fighter or let Maidana pound on Khan until he drops, bloodied and battered.



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