By Gari Jones: It’s a fight all fans of Boxing have been waiting for; Amir Khan (W23 (KO17), L1 (1KO) and D0) will face off against Marcos Rene Maidana (W29 (KO27), L1 (0KO) D0) on the11th December 2010 for the WBA Welterweight World Title. Its always exciting to see two very different styles match-up together, Khan with vast speed and accuracy VERSUS Maidana whose hard hitting and tough as nails attitude should be in my mind a very tough and close fight, but despite this I wonder if Khan has the chin to last against Maidana?

It’s a big step up in class for Amir Khan, after studying his fight record and watched many of his fights questions have to be asked if Khan can withstand a long onslaught from the hard-hitting Argentinean. Khan who in September 2008 lost after 54 seconds of round one to hard hitting Columbian Breidis Prescott has since been spoon-fed opponents (Oisin Fagan, Andriy Kotelnik and the joke Dimitry Salita). After that humiliating to loss Prescott, a question mark had appeared over Khan’s head, how could he go on to achieve his ambition of world champion if he hadn’t the durability to take a shot to the chin.

Khan sensing he needed to change camps moved over to the states into the Wild Card Gym of Freddie Roach and under Roach – Khan has reinvented himself. Having tightened up his defence (protecting his vulnerable chin), improving his footwork, movement and hand speed, Khan looks to be ready to take on the task of defending his title against Maidana. However his chin is something that can’t be toughened up and that is something Marcos will look to exploit.

Maidana possesses a solid chin and KO power, having knocked out 27 of his last 29 opponents (his most noticeable victory against Victor Ortiz June 2006 – Ortiz and Maidana both scored 2 knockdowns in there match-up), Maidana showed great resilience in getting up twice both once in the 1st and 2nd round to eventually go on and win by KO in the 6th. Maidana is someone who likes to take the fight to his opponent, coming forward and working the inside, usually leading in with a left hook to the head and then coming inside to the body, it’s a style that has proven very successful in his career.

Maidana punching power is quite something for a man of his size and being only a Welterweight he’s pretty fast with his hands too (although not as fast a Khan’s). It’s this combination of power, stamina and pressure fighting that I think is going to be Khan’s downfall. I believe Khan will utilise the pressure style of Maidana and will try to box him the same way Kotelnik did in February 2009 keeping at distance and moving around being a hard target to hit, its mad to think that the only loss on Maidana’s record is a 12 round points loss to Kotelnik a man who Khan later went on to defeat in September the same year to capture the WBA title.

I predict Maidana will win this fight by KO in round 10 but if Khan were to win it would most likely go the distance and win by point as I don’t believe Khan has the power to stop him, EITHER WAY IT WILL BE A GREAT FIGHT TO WATCH.