By Scott Gilfoid: What happens when you match a fighter with a weak chin against the biggest puncher in the light welterweight division? I think we may find out the answer to that question this Saturday night when the shaky-chinned WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) faces the light welterweight divisions biggest puncher in Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) in a bout that is scheduled for 12 rounds at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, but it likely won’t last anywhere close to that.

This is a fight that reminds me of a match between a powerful praying mantis and a harmless beetle. I wish I could say this is going to be a competitive match, but I see Maidana taking the fun out of the match quite early on when he lands one of his big right hands that cause Khan to go into a brief chicken dance like the one he did in his 1st round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott before going down. Khan will probably make it back to his feet but will be staggering with his eyes rolling around in his head. Since the fight is taking place in the United States, I see it being stopped at that point rather than the fight being allowed to continue for Khan to be blasted out by one more monster shot by Maidana.

Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach is finally starting to take notice of what Khan is up against in this fight, saying in an article at the Telegraph.co.uk, “Maidana is very tough, and a very durable guy. He’s genuinely going to be very dangerous. He’s not a great boxer in technical terms, but his strength is his durability. He could punch you out of there early or punch you out there late. He has a very good right hand. I think the key to this fight is the jab. We won’t use the fight hand for a few rounds. I’ve told Amir to keep his right hand in his pocket for four to five rounds. He will be very dangerous for the entire fight, so we will have to be very, very precise. But I think this is a great fight for Amir.”

The one problem with Roach’s strategy is that Maidana plans on cutting off the ring on Khan when he’s running around in circles throwing jabs. Once Maidana cuts off the ring, Khan is going to be met with a huge right hand to the head that stops Khan in his tracks and likely puts him down permanently.