By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (31-2, 28 KO’s) was overpowering in knocking down his over-matched challenger Petr Petrov (29-3-2, 13 KO’s) three times in the process of stopping him in the 4th round on Saturday night at the Sociedad Aleman, Villa Ballester, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The end came with a short left hook to the body while Petrov had his back against the ropes. Petrov collapsed onto the canvas in a slightly delayed reaction after getting nailed by Maidana’s big left hand.

Although Petrov sprang back quickly to his feet the referee had seen enough of the one-sided match and stopped the bout. Maidana also knocked Petrov down late in the 1st with a huge right hand that caused Petrov to touch the canvas with his right glove to keep from going down. I don’t think he was expecting to get hit so hard, as Maidana really loaded up on that shot while the two fighters were in close next to the ropes.

The second knockdown occurred in the 4th round from a powerful right cross from Maidana that dropped Petrov. The downward arc of shot knocked Petrov down face first on the canvas. That was perhaps the best shot of the night.

After Maidana had Petrov hurt in the 4th, Petrov fought back remarkably well, landing some nice lefts to the body and right hands. However, he missed a lot of shots and Maidana continued with his all out attack. As the round was nearing the end, Maidana landed a bone jarring short left hook that hurt Petrov followed by a big right hand seconds later that sent Petrov in retreat to the ropes. Once Maidana had him there, he landed a number of short power punches ending with a left to the body that knocked Petrov down for the final time.

Overall, it was a good performance from Maidana. His defense wasn’t all that good, but it really didn’t matter because he hurt Petrov almost every time he connected cleanly. There was no way this fight could have made it to the 6th round with Maidana’s pressure and power shots wearing Petrov out.

I think if Amir Khan had been in there with Maidana last night, I doubt very seriously that he would have been able to finish the fight on his feet. Maidana looks to have improved since the Khan fight, and did a great job of nailing Petrov with big shots every time the Russian would grab Maidana in a clinch or would hold onto one of Maidana’s arms to keep him from punching. This is what Khan did quite frequently in his fight with Maidana last year – holding onto his arms and clinching without being penalized by the referee. The referee actually seemed to help Khan out at times by breaking apart the action when Khan was holding onto one of Maidana’s arms and getting nailed repeatedly by Maidana’s free arm. Instead of letting Maidana continue to nail Khan, the referee broke apart the action.

I doubt Khan will opt to fight Maidana again, even though this is by far the better fight compared to Khan’s next bout against Lamont Peterson. There really isn’t much interest in that fight compared to a Maidana-Khan rematch. However, Peterson can’t punch, so that obviously makes him the safer pick for Khan.