By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) plans on puncturing World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan’s big dreams next Saturday night in their title fight at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan, 23, has been looking past Maidana talking about unifying the light welterweight titles by beating the Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander winner and then taking on Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year in what Khan hopes would be a mega fight. Maidana doesn’t see Khan as a future anything, saying in an article at the telegraph.co.uk, “I’ve seen Khan fight. I’ve seen his victories. I think he’s overrated, over-hyped, and he may be fast, but it will take me one punch to change my world.”

I agree with Maidana. Khan looks sensational when he’s moving around the ring and throwing combinations. I can’t think of a single fighter that looks better than him in any division. But what ruins it is the weak chin of Khan. He can’t take a huge shot without staggering around or going down, and he’s been kept away from big punchers since his one attempt at taking on a big puncher in 2008 in his 1st round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott. Khan has looked good against the five weak punchers he’s faced since then, but he hasn’t been in with anyone that has any kind of power to speak of. Next Saturday night on December 11th, Maidana is going to wreck Khan’s world, destroy his dreams and likely send him back to facing weak punchers again like he’s been doing. For Khan to come back from a knockout loss to Maidana, he’ll have to be carefully managed in a way that shields him from any big punchers until he gets his dream fight with Mayweather or whoever he’s got his sights set on by then.

Maidana has proven that he can take big shots from a fast puncher in his 6th round TKO win over Victor Ortiz last year. Ortiz appears to be almost as fast as Khan, but a bigger puncher. Khan won’t be able to put Maidana down the way that Ortiz did without risking getting hit with one of Maidana’s big power shots.

“I don’t dislike him, but I don’t think Amir Khan is as good as he is put out to be,” says Maidana. He’s a flashy style of fighter. What this fight does do for me is raises my profile, and I need to take advantage of that.”

Although Maidana and Khan are both promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, it’s pretty clear that they expect big things from Khan in the future and likely see this as a winnable fight for Khan. Maidana could ruin their big dreams about Khan by taking him out like he did another one of Golden Boy’s prospects Ortiz last year. Ortiz is still trying to regain his credibility in the boxing world since that defeat. It could be the same thing for Khan. It doesn’t matter how flashy he is, because what it’s going to come down to next Saturday night is whether he has the chin and the hear to beat Maidana. I don’t think Khan does. I see him as one of those types of fighters that does good against weak punchers but who gets knocked out when he faces someone with power. I see him as the light welterweight division’s version of Enzo Maccarinelli.