By Scott Gilfoid: If I was a betting man, I would put my money on WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) catching up and knocking out the heavily hyped but totally unproven WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) on December 11th in their fight at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan has built his impressive looking record on the backs of weak punchers, and his amateur experience in the Olympics was with protective head gear in short four round bouts.

In the one fight that Khan has been in with a big puncher during his pro career, he was easily knocked out in one round. If you think that was just a fluke thing, think again. His handlers haven’t exactly been rushing head over heels to put him in with another big puncher since that fateful day in September 6th, in 2008 Indeed, Khan has been matched with one weak puncher after another since the loss to Breidis Prescott. Now, Khan has no choice but to face Maidana or else have the embarrassment of getting his title stripped from him. It’s never a good thing to have your title stripped from you because you didn’t want to face a dangerous opponent.

People would likely look the other way if Khan hadn’t been knocked out previously and if this was a weak opponent. However, it’s not a weak opponent and Khan has been knocked out. So, we have to look at the likelihood that Khan will revisit the canvas and be counted once more. A good predictor of the future is to take a look at the past, and in Khan’s case, he failed completely when he was put in with a fighter with power.

Since Maidana is an ever bigger puncher with better accuracy and an outstanding ability to put a lot of pressure on his opponents, you have to assume that Khan is going to get knocked out again. In looking at Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach, he often protects his fighters by having them move around a lot when they weak chins like Khan. Roach also tends to put his fighters in with guys that they have an excellent chance to beat. Khan does have a chance to beat Maidana, but I wouldn’t call it an excellent one. This isn’t a sure thing.

Khan will have to possess the chin to beat Maidana, and I think that’s where Khan will fail. Roach’s strategy of Khan running and jabbing all night will only help him for so long. That’s a temporary measure but not one that you can count on for 12 rounds. It might work with a fighter with a decent chin against a big puncher, but not one with a chin made of glass. In that case, the likely only way Khan can win is if the goes out there with a some nice strong headgear to protect him. I don’t even think that would help in a fight against Maidana. He hits too hard and he’ll catch up to Khan sooner or later and either land a big shot to his midsection or blast through his headgear to take Khan out anyway.