By William Mackay: It’s nice that Amir Khan has great hand speed, but if he can’t handle taking huge shots from Marcos Maidana when they meet up on December 11th, what’s the point? Right now, boxing fans are enamored with Khan because of his wins over the feather fisted Paulie Malignaggi last May and his win over the equally light hitting Andry Kotelnik last year. However, Maidana hits a lot harder than either of those guys and he’s not going to fold immediately like Dimitri Salita did in his 1st round knockout loss to Khan last year in December. Maidana will take whatever shots that Khan throws and will stalk and pressure Khan and force him to fight.

I see this fight as replay of the Giovanni Segura vs. Ivan Calderon fight where Segura ruined Calderon with his constant pressure and hard body shots. Calderon eventually couldn’t handle the body shots and took a knee in the 8th. I can see Khan doing to same thing with Maidana’s unrelenting pressure. Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach is will use the same blue print from Khan’s victory over Kotelnik last year for the Maidana fight by having Khan moving constantly, using his jab and keeping his head as far away from Maidana as humanly possible. But if you look a the Khan vs. Kotelnik fight, Khan took a lot of punishment late in that fight and ended up with a bruised up face.

This was against a light puncher. Can you imagine what will happen when Khan faces Maidana, a fighter who hits much harder and who is a lot better at pressuring than Kotelnik. They say that speed neutralizes power, but not when you have a fighter with a chin as weak as Khan’s. You have to be able to take a certain amount of shots to win any fight unless you’re a beast with one punch knockout power and are able to get easy 1st round knockouts. Khan isn’t that kind of a puncher and needs to work hard to get his wins, even against pillow punching fighters like Malignaggi.

Maidana hits way too hard to end up getting out-boxed by Khan. It’s certainly possible that Maidana could lose by a decision against Khan, but only if he sits back and stays in one place to let Khan get his shots off. But once Maidana turns on his pressure like he’s been doing in the handful of fights, Khan will be forced to take some massive shots and will live or die on his ability to take Maidana’s big power. I don’t think Khan can take that kind of punishment without getting knocked out. He’s going to have to prove that he can take Maidana’s power because I don’t think he can, and I’m not the only one that feels this way. I just hope Khan doesn’t end up making a bunch of excuses and then end up not fighting Maidana. I can really see that happening, but I’m hoping it doesn’t go like that. Maidana deserves a title shot, and Khan can’t continue to put off this fight forever.