By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch thinks WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) needs to be careful in his next fight against the hard punching World Boxing Association light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) due to Maidana’s huge power. Khan and Maidana meet up next month on December 11th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. For Khan, this will be the first time that his management has matched him up against a fighter with power since he was knocked out in one brutal round by Breidis Prescott two years ago.

Khan has since been put in with light punchers to build his confidence up, and it appears they’ve gone a good job of that. They might have done maybe too good of a job because Khan is not only talking about beating Maidana, but he’s also looking into the future and seeing himself beating the Devon Alexander vs. Timothy Bradley winner next year and then facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. after that. Maybe they should have put Khan in with someone with maybe average power a couple of fights ago, so that at least with Khan maybe getting knocked down every now and then like before, he’d have a little grounded view on what’s in store for him when he faces Maidana.

In an article at thesun.co.uk, Khan’s got to be careful because Maidana is a big puncher, but he’s got all the skills to box rings round him.” Froch is right about Khan having the skills to box in circles around Maidana. But what Froch leaves out is that Maidana is going to step in front of Khan during one of his big circles and knock the starch out of him and leave him on the canvas for his trainer Freddie Roach to bring him to. I see Khan getting knocked cold by Maidana, and it doesn’t matter how much skills and hand speed Khan has. What matters is he can’t handle the power of Maidana during their exchanges. Maidana will be able to handle Khan’s shots, especially with Khan running for his life once he tastes Maidana’s power early on.

But Khan will not be able to take Maidana’s shots and will end up getting stretched out on the canvas very quickly. I see this fight ending around the 6th round, maybe earlier depending on how fast it takes for Maidana to step in front of Khan during one of his many circles around the ring. Maidana cuts off the ring well, and has explosive power in close. Khan is going to try and clinch, and that will give Maidana another opportunity to knock him out. Maidana is going to have so many opportunities to knock Khan out, he’s going to be like a kid in a candy store on December 11th.