By Scott Gilfoid: Argentinian knockout artist Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) intends on putting a tremendous amount of pressure on WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) on Saturday night to get him out of there as fast as possible. The fight will be taking place in the neutral venue Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan, 24, will likely have more fans present at the fight, but Maidana, with his huge power, has a way of creating fans in an instant with his huge power shots and his exciting style of fighting.

Khan plans on using the entire ring and focusing on boxing Maidana to keep from running into one of his big shots. Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach has made comments about Khan perhaps slugging with Maidana at times, but that sounds like one of Roach’s tricks to try and throw Maidana off. It won’t likely work, because Maidana doesn’t really change for any of his opponents. He’s a seek and destroy missile with no backup gear. Once he’s launched in the 1st round, he doesn’t stop coming forward for anyone and Roach’s futile attempts at mind games appear to have been a waste of time with Maidana. He’s above that.

In an article at thesun.co.uk, Maidana said “If I hit Khan, he’s going to go down. If the punch is in the right place, he will go down and he won’t get up. I can knock him out with one right hand. I’m going to fight the way I know, which is going forward to knock him out. I know Amir Khan does not have the punch to stop me. Khan has a lot of speed so I have to out a lot of pressure on him, corner him and then unload my punches. I will try and knock him out form the first bell, that’sn what I do best. I have to go for the knockout because I don’t trust judges. He says Roach has changed him and made him a better fighter, but Freddie isn’t going to be the one in there with me. Khan, not his trainer, has to fight me.”

Yes, Maidana is right. Roach has a way of inserting himself into fights as if he’s part of the action when he’s just the guy flapping his gums on the sidelines and giving instructions like, ‘stay away from him’ and ‘jab.’ Neither of those pearls of wisdom are going to help Khan against Maidana. He’s still going to have to fight him and beat him with power shots if he wants to walk out of that squared ring still the WBA champion on Saturday night. I don’t see it happening. I think their going to have to carry Khan out of the ring or what’s left of Khan after Maidana lands some of his big sledgehammer shots on Khan’s glass jaw. It’s going to be an ugly sight for Khan fans, and we could see some tears from his fellow Brits, who have suddenly become huge fans of him after his recent success against fighters with weak power in the past two years.