By William Mackay: Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 KO’s) may have come up short on the score cards in his 12 round decision loss to WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) on December 11th, but Maidana badly beat up Khan and had him hurt and holding on in the last three rounds of the fight. Had there been more rounds or if he had hurt Khan a little earlier in the fight, I think he would have knocked Khan out.

But in looking at the faces of the two fighters afterwards, it’s pretty clear who the real winner of this fight was – it was Maidana. His face looked almost totally unmarked, looking as if he had just finished a long run. Of course, Maidana was sweating because he was forced to chase the constantly running Khan from the 1st round until the very last. Khan ran like like no tomorrow from Maidana. I hadn’t seen running like that in a long time, and it was just awful to look at, especially since Khan was supposed to be a future star.

I don’t know about you, but that’s not how stars are supposed to fight. Khan’s face looked badly beaten, as if he had fallen out of a car at a high speed. He looked terrible, black and blue. There’s no question that Khan got beat up by Maidana and was just trying to survive in the last three rounds of the fight.

The bout reminded me of an old playground fight I saw when I was a child where one guy started getting beaten up and was just trying to hold on to keep the other guy from landing so many shots. It was sad to watch, because the guy kept looking at us to step and save him while he was getting pounded on. The Khan-Maidana fight was just like that from the 10 round on. But in this case, Khan was saved by referee Joe Cortez, who frequently stepped in to pull Maidana off of Khan will he was pounding the stuffing out of him on the inside.

That may have saved Khan from getting knocked out. Khan’s face went from being unmarked in the 10th to looking like Frankenstein’s monster by the end of the fight in the 12th. He really got beat up something fierce by Maidana. I’d like to think there will be a rematch someday between Maidana and Khan, but I can’t see Khan ever being put in with Maidana again. I think Maidana would start in where he left off and begin pummeling Khan again in a second fight.