By Michael Ryan: Defending WBA 140 lb champion Amir Khan has taken a unanimous decision victory over Marcos Maidana, in what must surely be a shoe in for the fight of 2010.

The pre-fight hype billed this one as “Thunder Vs Lightning”, and in a boxing rarity, the contest itself managed to surpass the associated PR exercise.

The questions coming into this fight centered around the 2 key issues:

Could Maidana live with Khan’s speed
Could Khan live with Maidana’s power

Well, on the evidence of tonight, I’d have to say yes on both counts, but my goodness me, it was certainly a case of only just.

The opening round saw Maidana land the 1st meaningful punch, momentarily rocking Khan, before Amir began to settle into his tried and tested “stick, jab, move” routine, which culminated in 2 vicious hooks to the body at the end of the 1st ,that left Maidana on the canvas and wincing in very obvious pain.

The 2nd opened with Maidana still quite clearly struggling, and Khan again using great handspeed and good combination punches to try to push home the advantage. Maidana however, showed real grit in managing to survive a torrid 2nd round, and came back strong in the 3rd, rocking Khan again, with another good right hand.

The 4th and 5th however, saw Khan start to pull away from Marcos, landing almost at will with solid combinations on the outside, while evading an increasingly flat footed Maidana’s attempts at countering.

Clearly becoming frustrated, Maidana was docked a point toward the end of the the 5th, for aiming a rather feeble elbow at Khan when instructed by Joe Cortex to break, which succeeded only in connecting with the referee.

The middle rounds however began to take on a different format, Khan by this stage growing in confidence, felt that he could take Maidana;s best shots and began to move in closer to trade with the rugged Argentine. This very nearly proved a costly mistake as time and again, Maidana seemed able to connect with meaningful shots. While Khan was on occasions clearly wobbled, he managed to absorb those shots, stay on his feet, and still do enough in those rounds to stay competitive, probably just edging the 8th and 9th.

Then, only a minute or so into the 10th came the real “heart in mouth” moment, as Maidana let rip with a wild swinging right that landed flush on Khan’s jaw, and saw the Champion’s knees buckle.

Maidana sensed the KO and moved in for the kill, while Khan went straight into survival mode and tried desperately to hang on for the bell, before finally staggering back to his corner for what must have felt like the shortest minute of respite of his life.

In the break between the rounds Cortez, came to Khan’s corner to check on the Champion’s condition, and could be heard advising Freddie Roach that “he was here to look after the fighters” such was his concern for Khan’s state at that time.

Khan was still visibly shaken at the start of the 10th, and when Maidana quickly moved in for the kill, it looked like it could be curtains for Amir.

However, the Champion showed great courage, and having again taking some stiff punishment from Maidana in the early part of the round, began to fire back with his own quick combinations in the last minute or so, knocking some of the wind out of the challenger’s sails.

The final round saw Khan, sensing that his opponent needed the KO, take a safety first approach, consisitently staying out of Maidana’s reach, before again firing back with good combinations in the latter part of the round, though when the final bell did come, the relief on Khan’s face was clear for all to see.

This had undoubtedly been one of the toughest nights work the young Champion had ever faced, having, perhaps for the 1st time, met a challenger that seemed both prepared for, and capable of, the kind of frenetic pace Khan himself sought to set.

While there will be a great many positives for Amir to take from this (not least of which will be a seemingly vastly “improved” chin), the fight seems only to have proven that, for all of Freddie Roach’s pre-fight talk, at just 24 years of age, young Amir is still very much a work in progress.

Sky’s Jim Watt gave an overly generous score of 116-110 in favour of Khan, however the official scorecards provided a far more accurate count of 114-111 (twice) and 113-112, all in favour of Khan..

Any talk of a rematch of this one, will doubtlessly be eagerly received by the boxing public.