By John Kelvin: Amir Khan (29-3 19 KO’s) thinks that Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KO’s) took the easy option is facing the now former welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KO’s) for his most recent fight last Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan thinks this because he already defeated Maidana in 2010 and that Mayweather is afraid of facing someone with fast hands like his. First off, how could Khan even think he deserved to face Mayweather when he and struggled to win against former lightweights Carlos Molina and Julio Diaz prior to Khan’s win last Saturday night against Luis Collazo.
Maidana on the other hand was undefeated at welterweight and a world champion. What is the harder fight, facing an undefeated welterweight champion or a guy with no fights at 147lbs and who has knocked out in his last world title fight. Khan has been knocked out twice and has been on the floor numerous times in his pro career. He was floored and nearly stopped by Willie Limond, a good boxer but who is not a real big puncher with only 10 knockouts to date. Khan only survived due to some dubious refereeing and time keeping. What good is being fast if you are seriously lacking good defensive skills and one of the most important things in the sport, the ability to take a good solid punch on the chin.
Khan’s victory against Collazo this past Saturday has been hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Collazo is a good boxer but was made out by the media to be some huge and vicious puncher due to his win over Victor Ortiz. Victor Ortiz was coming off an 18 month lay off, broken jaw and 2 stoppage defeats when he was stopped by Collazo. Khan claims to have vastly improved his defensive skills in the past year but is was hard to tell given that he was facing a fringe contender and simply through a few punches and grabbed all the way through the fight. Khan should face a top welterweight boxer in his next fight but he probably thinks that he has already earned the right to face Mayweather after one victory.
Back to the real point of the article, Khan versus Maidana. Khan started the fight well and dropped Maidana in the first round but as the fight wore on, Khan was hurt numerous times and had to resort to running around the ring to avoid getting his head taken off by Maidana who was all over him. Mayweather was never once in that sort of trouble on Saturday night. The three scores for the Khan fight were 114-111 which were a lot closer than the Mayweather fight which had scores of 116-112 and 117-111 (not including the ridiculous 114-114 score). Mayweather also faced a vastly improved version of Maidana than the one which Khan faced. The Maidana of Saturday night would have beat Khan badly.
Comments are closed.