By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) has the power and the pressure to get World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) out in a real hurry when they meet next month on December 11th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, the longer the fight goes the more of a chance that Khan will have to survive long enough to win a 12 round decision. Maidana has great power, to be sure, but he has clear stamina problems and his power dissipates rapidly after the midpoint of his fights.

Maidana has crushing power up to the 8th round, but after he slows down and is vulnerable to getting beaten. This was the case in his loss to Andriy Kotelnik and his disappointing 12 round decision win over DeMarcus Corley in August. When Maidana was unable to land something big enough to get these fighters out of there, he ran out of gas and the fight ended up going to decision. This is why it’s imperative that Maidana put more of an emphasis on trying to take Khan out as fast as he can, because he can’t afford to left the British fighter run away during the later rounds of the fight and win a decision based on better footwork and a better jab.

Maidana has the power to take Khan out in the first two rounds, but he’s got to make sure he loads up with everything he has to make sure that Khan gets taken out fast. Maidana’s best bet is to trap Khan against the ropes and take him out with a head or body shot. Khan is more vulnerable to head shots, and it may not take very long at all for Maidana to send him down.

However, we could also could see Maidana taking Khan out with a body shot, because Maidana punches very hard to the body and Khan really hasn’t been tested to the body during his career. Khan will likely be focusing on trying to protect his head more, and this will give Maidana a lot of open area to land body shots. If he’s smart, he’ll go to the body, test Khan there, and when Khan drops his guard to start protecting his bread basket, Maidana will then launch one of his big fight hands to the head that takes Khan out and leaves him in a heap.