By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) believes that his speed and power will be the key to victory against Marcos Maidana on December 11th when they meet up in one of the most highly anticipated bouts that the light welterweight division has seen in a long time.
Indeed, the light welterweight division hasn’t had a match-up with as much interest as this one since Zab Judah went up against WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu in November 2001.
It’s sad that the division has been without any real interesting fights since then, unless count Ricky Hatton. However, Hatton was mainly a British attraction and not a fighter that ever really caught on in the United States. Many Americans weren’t impressed with his skills or the way that he wrestled his way to victory over and old Tszyu in 2005.
Maidana has won respect in the U.S, and it’s going to be interesting to see if Khan can beat him. In an article at the Mirror.co.uk, Khan says “Maidana’s never faced anyone as quick or hard hitting as me. When I’ve beaten him, I want the winner of Devon Alexander’s fight with Timothy Bradley, so I can prove to everyone I am the best in this division.”
Khan seems incredibly naïve. Maidana has faced a fighter with roughly the same hand speed and clearly better power in Khan when he beat Victor Ortiz last year by a 6th round TKO.
Ortiz isn’t quite as fast as Khan, but he’s close enough for a fairly accurate comparison. However, Khan has faced only one fighter during his five-year pro career that has power that’s anywhere close to Maidana and that’s Breidis Prescott.
As we know from that fight, Khan failed miserably and was knocked out in the 1st round in 2008. Khan’s fights since then have all come against fighters with weak power. He’s beaten Paulie Malignaggi, Dmitri Salita, Andriy Kotelnik, and undersized Marco Antonio Barrera and Oisin Fagan. Not one of those fighters has any real power, and you can’t compare any of them to Maidana.
So basically Khan has fought one fighter that has almost as much power as Maidana, and Khan was knocked out in the 1st round by that fighter. That pretty much tells me all I need to know about what will happen to Khan in his fight with Maidana. Khan will try to run, and get caught near the ropes and then knocked out all in that order. It’s going to be like a big lion hunting it’s dinner.
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