By William Mackay: As much as I’d like to think that WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) can go into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and earn a 12 round decision over World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s), I think it might take a knockout to get the win in their fight on December 11th. Sometimes there are fighters that are more than equal and who count for more boxing world when they’re seen as a cash cow or a potential cash cow.

Beating those fighters by decision is sometimes almost impossible to do. For example, if you take a look at Oscar De La Hoya’s fight with Felix Sturm in 2004, you’ll likely think that Sturm should have won the decision but he didn’t. De La Hoya got the decision and went on to get wiped out in a big money fight with then IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

I’m really hoping that Maidana can get a fair shake and get a decision win over Khan, but I think deep down it’s going to take a brutal knockout of Khan for Maidana to get the win. I just hope there’s not any funny business with a long count given to Khan to try and keep him in the fight and give him a second chance. However, I think if that happens, it will actually backfire and cause Khan to really get hurt because it will enable Maidana to tee off on him with additional huge shots to the head.

The thing that Maidana has going for him is his raw power. He’s at the stage of his career where he doesn’t need judges. He basically makes them idle spectators without much use because he knocks out almost everybody out. Khan seems to think his chin has gotten better now that he’s not fighting to make lightweight anymore. I don’t believe in excuses like that. You either have a good chin or you don’t.

Things like fighting to make weight doesn’t make you more susceptible to getting knocked out. If it was that easy, how come Khan was stunned in the Olympics and knocked down by guys like Willie Limond and Michael Gomez in the pros. Was Khan fighting to make weight even then? Maidana is going to take the judges out of this fight by connecting with some monstrous shots that’s going to leave Khan on the canvas badly hurt. That’s how I see it. But I do wonder about Maidana’s chances of winning a decision if Khan sprints around the ring for 12 rounds and basically spoils the entire fight. Being seen as a future Manny Pacquiao and/or Floyd Mayweather Jr. replacement mega star, Khan could win rounds that he would appear to have lost by a wide margin. In that case, Maidana could lose the fight unless he knocks Khan out.