Khan shows heart as he survives a scare against Maidana on December 11 in Vegas:
The fight between Amir “King Khan” Khan and Marcos “El Chino” Maidana lived up to every expectation that boxing fans had as the two combatants left everything in the ring on December 11, 2010, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV. Khan entered the ring looking to put on an impressive performance against Maidana, which could prove to be a great audition for a possible fight with the winner of the upcoming Devon Alexander vs. Timothy Bradley fight in January 2011. Maidana’s intentions going into the fight were to simply attempt to break Khan’s will with extreme pressure and pin him against the ropes, where inevitably the opportunities would arise to possibly land the big shot needed to hurt and take out Khan.
For Khan, the recipe in the fight should have been easy, use his long arms to create distance and overwhelm Maidana with his unbelievable combination punching. In round one of this fight, Khan stuck to the game plan of creating space, and using his speed to unleash his ombinations from a safe range, which resulted in a first round knockdown of Maidana due to a perfect body shot from King Khan.
Khan continued to dazzle the Las Vegas crowd during the early rounds with his handspeed and combinations, as he kept his space and caught Maidana as he was coming in. Meanwhile Maidana stalked Khan trying to land that one big shot, but was merely following him around the ring ineffectively.
In round five, Judge Joe Cortez deducted a point from Maidana because according to Cortez, when Maidana was throwing and landing his punches on Khan, he was following through with his elbow. I thought that this was bogus; in fact, I thought there were a couple of moments in this fight where Judge Cortez involved himself when he should have just stayed out of the way of the action.
As the fight moved into the later rounds, Maidana took a lot of shots, but he was also landing some of his own on Khan, and was proving to be still very dangerous as the fight went into deep waters. Khan started to fatigue and Maidana began landing multiple overhand rights to Khan’s temple, from round eight throughout the rest of the fight.
In the tenth round, Maidana got his chance to pull off the upset when he caught Khan with a devastating overhand right to Khan’s chin with plenty of time left in the round. Khan showed the heart of a champion by weathering Maidana’s sustained attack, including dozens of straight shots and uppercuts to Khan’s beard, in one of the best boxing rounds of this year. I believe Judge Cortez stepped in when Khan was seriously on dream street and saved him when Maidana was going on for the finish, though, I do give Khan a lot of credit for staying on his feet.
In rounds eleven and twelve Khan was still on weak legs, but he showed the heart of a champion yet again by backing up when he needed to and fighting Maidana when it was time to stand and fight, though El Chino gave Khan a serious beating for much of the last two rounds. Khan held on to finish the fight and the fight went to the judges’ scorecards. Khan was awarded the close unanimous decision victory, thus retaining his WBA World light welterweight title.
In this fight, Khan showed his speed and elusive brilliance, but he almost let his pride get the best of him. Khan is a fighter who should just box and avoid brawling, particularly against a puncher and fighter like Maidana. But he did answer much of the questions surrounding his chin and his warrior’s spirit.
Khan’s next step in the future should be looking at a possible showdown with the Alexander/Bradley winner, but we all know that sometimes boxing is an animal that has twists and turns which keep boxing fans guessing. Who knows who King Khan will fight next? I would like to see him fight either winner of Alexander/Bradley, or even a rematch with Maidana, to see if Khan will learn from his mistake of brawling with the ever so dangerous Maidana.
Right now Khan’s position in the 140 pound division still remains the same as there are no clear front runners who have taken this division by storm, but if Khan can learn from this past fight with Maidana, and box rather than brawl, then he can possibly wear the crown as the best fighter at 140. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have Freddie Roach on his side, either.
