By William Mackay: Amir Khan is picking WBA light welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (30-2, 27 KO’s) to better challenger Robert Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 KO’s) in their fight on August 27th of this month in San Jose, California. Khan’s pick of Guerrero goes against what many boxing experts are saying about Guerrero being too skilled for Maidana. He’s the superior fighter in terms of boxing skills compared to Maidana, who lives and dies by his knockouts.

I think Guerrero has too much ability for Maidana and I think the only way Maidana wins this fight is if he can jump on Guerrero from the 1st round and stick to him like glue for the full 12 rounds. If he can stay on him and not give Guerrero any space, I can see Maidana maybe forcing Guerrero to quit. I saw some panic in Guerrero in one of his fights not too long again against Daud Cino Yordan when he was met with some early resistance. Guerrero didn’t like Yordan’s hard shots and inside fighting, and appeared to be more than happy to have the fight stopped early because of a cut he sustained from a head clash.

Khan previously fought Maidana last year in December and barely got through that fight after taking a horrendous beating in a bout that saw Khan out on his feet in the 10th round. I still think that Khan would have been knocked out in the last three rounds had there been a less involved referee that would have permitted Maidana to continue to pummel Khan on the inside.

“Maidana is just going to go in there and be the bigger man and win the fight. He’ll beat Guerrero…So I give that fight to Maidana and I think to myself, do I have to fight Maidana again because I’ve already beaten him? There wouldn’t be a new title. Do I want to fight someone? What do I gain? I’ve already beaten the guy.”

Yeah, I bet Khan has no interest in fighting Maidana again. I’m not surprised by that one, because Maidana really gave Khan a beating. I don’t know of too many fighters that would be okay with a win like the one Khan got over Maidana. That wasn’t impressive at all. In a nutshell, Khan put Maidana down with a body shot in the 1st. However, from the 2nd round until the 10th, Khan essentially ran the entire time in a painful to watch fight. In the 10th, Maidana badly hurt him with a right hand that staggered Khan. From that point on, Maidana pounded on Khan with lefts and rights without stop, occasionally interrupted by referee Joe Cortez, who would often break the action while Maidana was really giving it to Khan against the ropes.

I think Khan want’s no part of either Guerrero or Maidana, and is probably hoping it will be Maidana so that he doesn’t face the pressure to fight Guerrero. Believe me, if Guerrero easily beats Maidana like I think he will, there will be massive pressure for Khan to fight Guerrero rather than the winner of the Erik Morales vs. Lucas Matthysse fight. Currently, Khan is eying the winner of that fight for his next bout in December. Khan specifically wants to fight Morales so that he can add another name to his scalp. Unfortunately, Morales is just a name and not the same fighter he was years ago. It would be like facing Marco Antonio Barrera and Zab Judah again, both of which weren’t the same fighters they once where by the time Khan fought them.