AMIR KHAN VS. MARCOS MAIDANA

By: Robert Ramos

“The Chin wins”

On Saturday night December 11, 2010, Amir Khan, the British born WBA super light­weight champion (24-1, 17 KO’s) and former Olympic 2004 silver medalist won a unani­mous 12 round decision against the power punching knockout artist Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 KO’s) who hails from Argentina. This was a great fight from start to finish, action packed and perfect example of two effective yet contrasting styles, boxer (Khan) vs. brawler (Maidana). Khan was coming into the fight with a questionable weak chin, because in 2008, on his rise to boxing super stardom he was knocked out by Columbian boxer, Breidis Prescott.

IN FIRST ROUND the Maidana came out hard landing two overhand rights and while Khan backpedaled and landed fast three punch combos. Later in first round Khan became the aggressor and landed a devastating left hook to Maidana’s rib cage which immediately sent Maidana to the canvas. For a moment it looked like Maidana may not get up, but the gutsy Maidana stood up and made the ten count, was able to withstand Khan’s attempt to finish him off and survived first round.

IN ROUNDS TWO, three and four Khan began to show off his blazing speed and excellent boxing ring­manship by circling Maidana and landing three and four punch combinations to the head and body of Maidana, but Maidana was able to take Khan’s punches well. Maidana was able to land a few decent head and body shots of his own, but not enough to win the rounds.

The rest of the fight was extremely competitive with both fighters having their moments; however, Khan was able to take stay away from the majority of Maidana’s power and the few power shots and uppercuts that Maidana was able to land, Khan was able to absorb them well and edged out the game Maidana by staying busier and landing super fast combinations.

IN ROUND FIVE, during a clinch, referee Joe Cortez took away a point from Maidana, for throwing an elbow that hit Cortez in the chest while he broke them apart. At this point in the fight, things looked real bad for Maidana, being knocked down in the first round and a point deduction in round five; it looked like Maidana needed a knockout in order to win.

IN THE LATER ROUNDS Khan began to show fatigue and Maidana began to land hard shots more frequently, but Khan was still in control of the fight. Then in round 10 with 1:53 left in the round and much to everyone’s surprise Maidana landed a brutal overhand right that buckled Khan’s knees and sent him wobbling against the ropes. Khan was literally out on his feet and Maidana charged forward landing short vicious right and left hooks and uppercuts to the head, it looked like Khan was headed towards the canvas, but Khan miraculously stood his ground and survived round ten.

In rounds eleven and 12 it seemed as if most of the steam was gone from Maidana’s punches and Khan was able to regain his senses and regroup. Khan avoided most of Maidana’s weak power shots and continued to land combinations of his own that also lost most of their pop.

Amir walked away victorious with a unanimous decision, the judges scoring Scores were 114-111, 114-111, and 113-112. Within the past year Khan has begun trai­ning in the U.S. under the watchful eye of the legendary trainer Freddie Roach and has sparred many rounds against Manny Pacquiao for his preparation of this fight. I still see minor flaws in Khan’s fight game, but he is still young and very quick. Training under Roach, he will only get better. This was Khan’s second win, since he’s been given the opportunity to fight in the U.S. Khan’s first fight here back in May of this year was a massacre of Paul Malignaggi ending in a eleventh round TKO. Khan’s victory over Maidana was a gutsy performance and well deserved decision. Khan was able to successfully retain his WBA belt and fully grasped this opportunity via the premiere HBO boxing venue to show fight fans across the U.S. that he deserves to be a world champion, world ranked fighter and top ten contenders with a great chin to match. Khan, I look forward to watching your future match-ups, job well done and welcome to America.