By William Mackay: Freddie Roach thinks his fighter WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) has the knockout power to stop Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) on December 11th in their big fight in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Even though Khan has never stopped a big named fighter before during his career, unless you count the weak punching Paulie Malignaggi, Roach seems to think that Khan has enough power to take the hard punching Maidana out.

In Thursday’s press conference with Khan and Maidana to promote their upcoming fight, Roach said “He [Khan] sets things up now. He doesn’t go in looking for one-punch knockouts. He knows how to break a person down. He knows how to work his jab. I’ve never had a fighter listen so well and take to the game plan so much. We haven’t lost one round since we have been together. I don’t see us losing a round here either. He [Maidana] does have KO power. We respect that. We’re ready for what he has. He’s a very good fighter. We will break him down and I think he will knock [Maidana] out in the later rounds.”

Khan has been matched lightly since being knocked out by Breidis Prescott in 2008. His best opponent since then was Andriy Kotelnik, a fighter will little power to speak of. Khan fought on the outside and ran around the ring all night long against Kotelnik. It was a fight that Khan had nothing to really worry about because Kotelnik’s main weapon is his jab, and he played into Khan’s hands by having such a limited offensive arsenal.

Maidana is a much different fighter with knockout power in both hands. He doesn’t waste time with jabbing. He’s looking to take his opponent’s head off with every shot. Khan may do okay for a while against Maidana, but as soon as he catches up to him it’s game over. Maidana will take Khan out sure enough.

Roach is wrong about Khan taking Maidana out in the later rounds. I don’t expect Khan to be still around by the later part of the fight. Khan will be lucky if he makes it past six. I just hope Roach doesn’t take the loss to hard, because Khan is supposed to be his future star and the one that will carry on after Roach’s number 1 fighter Manny Pacquiao hangs up the gloves. I don’t think that’s going to be happening, because I see Khan’s knockout loss to Maidana as being just the beginning of a series of knockout defeats that will characterize the rest of Khan’s career.