By William Mackay: I can’t help wondering what would have happened in the Marcos Maidana vs. Amir Khan title fight if referee Joe Cortez had simply let Maidana and Khan keep fighting in the 10th, 11th and 12th rounds when Maidana had Khan hurt and was tagging him with pulverizing shots with Khan backed against the ropes and often holding onto one of Maidana’s arms.

I’ve seen countless other fights where a fighter holds another fighters arms and the referee would let them continue to fight without separating them. In the situations where I’ve seen a referee step in when a fighter is holding another fighter’s arm, I’ve seen them slap at the arm and tell the fighter holding the arm to let go.

But what I haven’t seen is a referee separating a badly hurt fighter who is holding onto the arm of another fighter and getting pounded on over and over again like Khan was getting hit by Maidana. Cortez may not have realized it but by separating Maidana and Khan, he effectively was giving Khan the space needed to survive the rounds.

Had Cortez just let Maidana continue to pound the stuffing out of Khan with his anvil-like short punches, I have serious doubts whether Khan would have stayed on his feet for long. Maidana is one of those rare fighters that can get maximum power on his shots whether he’s landing short punches on the inside or winding up and throwing big shots at a distance. It doesn’t seem to matter. Maidana punches incredibly hard either way. But given how much running Khan was doing in the fight, Cortez really hurt Maidana by letting Khan escape when he was pinned with his back against the ropes and was getting pummeled by Maidana.