By William Mackay: It’s been two years since Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) was knocked out by Breidis Prescott in the 1st round in September 2008. Now, five light punchers later, Khan has won his last five fights including a world title and is fighting World Boxing Association light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) on December 11th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan has a number of big advantages over the hard hitting Maidana in this fight, most notably with his hand speed.
Khan’s supporters think that Khan’s speed, boxing ability and movement will be more than enough for him to not only beat Maidana but to totally dominate him and make him look bad in the process. However, Khan’s fans seem to have selective amnesia and don’t see the overall picture of who Khan has been fighting since the loss to Prescott. They see Khan’s flashy wins over Oisin Fagan, Marco Antonio Barrera, Dmitri Salita, Andriy Kotelnik and Paulie Malignaggi and assume that this makes Khan a sure thing to beat the powerful Maidana.
What they fail to recognize is that Khan has been facing nothing but weak punchers since the loss to Prescott, and you pretty much have to throw out all of those wins due to the lack of power that these fighters had going into the fight with Khan. The question that comes to mind for me is what will Khan do if he’s knocked out by Maidana? Unlike Khan’s loyal fans, who see things through rose colored glasses, I’m a realist and see that he’s been facing pillow punchers since his loss to Prescott.
I know how match-making works, and can’t miss the fact that Khan has been steered away from big punchers for the past two years. I’d like nothing more than for Khan to try and get an immediate rematch with Maidana if he’s knocked cold so that he can try and avenge the defeat. However, I think Khan’s promoters won’t want any part of Maidana. If you look at Khan’s loss to Prescott, you’ll notice that Khan never fought a rematch with him to try and avenge the defeat. You have to go by that to predict Khan’s future behavior, as future events cast their shadows before. I see Khan avoiding Maidana like the plague if he gets knocked out.
I don’t think Khan will ever fight Maidana again if he gets knocked out, and once Maidana is beaten two or three times by some good fighters, Khan will have the perfect excuse for not fighting him again. This is pretty much the explanation that Khan has been giving for not fighting Prescott again – that he’s already been beaten and he would gain nothing from fighting him again. Okay, so I don’t see Khan going for a rematch with Maidana if he loses. I doubt Khan will retire, because he will want to keep fighting so that he can make more money and won’t want to see his comfortable life style sink into a more average lifestyle once his money starts to dwindle.
I see Khan focusing on light punchers even more than he did before. After a loss to Maidana, I can’t see Khan ever being matched against another big puncher for the remainder of his career. I know that’s going to be hard for him to avoid the big punchers, but I think that’s what he’s going to do. I see him vacating a title rather than facing someone with power that could possibly knock him out again.
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