By William Mackay: We’re beginning to see that WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) doesn’t really possess the kind of power needed at light welterweight for him to run over his opponents the same way he was able to do at lightweight. That wouldn’t be such a big issue if Khan had a granite chin like some of the tougher fighters in the light welterweight division. However, we saw pretty clearly last weekend when Khan was turned into a running spaghetti-legged fighter after getting clipped by Marcos Maidana that he doesn’t have the chin to take punishment for long stretches of time without getting staggered badly.

This is where it would be useful for Khan if he had the kind of big Maidana-like power that would save him from getting exposed over and over again by fighters with any kind of power. This isn’t something that his legendary trainer Freddie Roach or his strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza will be able to do much about unfortunately. You either have power or you don’t, and you can drink a million protein milk shakes and do a ton exercising, but the power isn’t going to increase any. If anything, all that stuff will do is slow Khan down and make him easier to hit.

If Khan is going to have to go the distance every time to get his wins, he’s not going to last long I’m afraid. His chin is much too fragile for him to take hard shots late in his fights, and he doesn’t have the wheels to run for 12 rounds without weakening. Against Maidana, Khan looked weak in the legs in the later rounds and that’s perhaps the biggest reason why Maidana was able to catch Khan finally with a big right hand in the 10th. It was bound to happen sooner or later once Khan’s noodle-like legs weakened enough for him to be there for Maidana to hit. I see it only getting worse for Khan in the future when he faces faster guys like Zab Judah, Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley.

Those guys are too fast for Khan to run from all night long, and without the power to take them out, he’s going to be forced to depend on his fragile chin to beat them. I don’t think Khan can take shots from any of them for 12 rounds without getting knocked out. I suspect that Maidana weakened Khan’s ability to absorb shots with the punishment he laid out on Khan in the final three rounds of their fight and I doubt Khan will ever be the same again. I think Khan is on his way to being shot very quickly.