By Dan Ambrose: World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) has one of the weaker chins of the top light welterweights in the division. Khan also has some of the best hand speed, foot movement and defensive skills among the top fighters in the division. Those attributives may or may not keep him upright and carry him to victory on Saturday night against challenger Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s). However, Maidana hits harder than most of the fighters in the division and has good enough to stop Khan at any moment in the fight if he lands something big enough.

Khan seems to think he’ll be to avoid the shots from Maidana, and it’s going to be interesting to see Khan try. Maidana is a lot slower than Khan, and could have problems trying to connect with his shots with Khan dashing this way and that all night long. But if you look at Maidana’s fights against opponents that attempted to use movement against him, he was always quick to cut off the ring to force them to fight. Indeed, Maidana goes against boxing wisdom by chasing his opponents at time at a near run to cut off the ring and he’s very effective at doing this. Khan may find himself trapped in a one on one battle against Maidana whether he likes it or not.

In that case, it may come down to whether Khan can take the big shots he’s getting hit with in each round. I have no doubts that Maidana will be able to take Khan’s punches, because Khan will be too busy moving to really sit down on his shots. Maidana, knowing how weak Khan’s chin is and how much he stands to gain in terms of money if he can beat Khan, will be punching harder than he ever has before in order to knock Khan out.

This will slow Maidana down even more, but he’s not the type that will ease up on his shots to pick up speed or accuracy. He’ll keep throwing as hard as he can knowing that once he does land a big shot, he’ll have a great chance of knocking Khan out. If Maidana cuts off the ring as good as he did in his wins over Victor Ortiz and Victor Cayo, this is going to be an early night for Maidana because Khan can’t fight nearly as good as Maidana in close and he’ll have problems each time they come within clinching range.