Khan Must Fight Maidana and Expel Demons
Written By: Armando Paz
There is always a point in any professional athlete’s career where they must answer questions to both themselves and critics. For a professional team sometimes the question is :can they win the big game on the road? Sometimes the question is simply can you play under pressure and handle adversity? In boxing, the question is sometimes can you fight a southpaw? Will you have the stamina to go 12 rounds or fight with a cut? Often fighters can injure their hand and must be able to fight through it.
Amir Khan (23-1 17 KO’s) has unjustly or accurately been labeled as a “glass jaw” by both critics and fans due to the infamous 1st round knock out he suffered against Breidis Prescott in less than a minute. The fact that Khan’s last opponent was Paulie Malignaggi who is perceived as “feather fisted” only added fuel to the speculation that Khan won’t allow his fragile chin to go in with a top puncher in the division. Marcos Rene Maidana (29-1 27 KO’s) is highly regarded as the strongest puncher in the division. His demolition of Victor Ortiz and Victor Cayo has consolidated his reputation as a power puncher. Maidana actually was scheduled to fight Khan earlier this year and than Timothy Bradley. Both fights were canceled and we were reduced to Khan-Malignaggi and Bradley-Abregu.
When Juan Manuel Marquez agreed to do his mandatory WBO defense against Michael Katsidis it pretty much put Khan-Maidana back in the picture for December 11. The trash talking between Khan and Bradley will need to wait as Bradley is likely going to fight Devon Alexander in January. This means boxing fans will be treated with possibly the top 4 fighters in the division going for true unification of the division. The winner of Khan-Maidana can than fight the winner of Bradley-Alexander, and then we can have one undisputed champion. Andriy Kotelnik is also among the elite, but his losses to Khan and Alexander move him out of the picture, although some questioned the decision of Alexander-Kotelnik.
Amir Khan will sooner or later need to answer the question: how will he react to getting hit with a flush shot to the chin? I believe that Khan needs to answer those questions immediately and put those questions to rest. Many great fighters have had questionable chins as Thomas Hearns, Diego Corrales and Wilfred Benitez and yet still had a great boxing career. Hearns was almost knocked out by James Kinchen and Juan Domingo Roldan, and yet found ways to hold on and win. Earlier in Heanrs career, the failure to clinch and hold on cost him the fight with Sugar Ray Leonard in round 14. Benitez a guy who was knockdown several times, used great defense to mitigate his chin and go the 15 round distance with Hearns.
The fact is that Amir Khan has the boxing skill and ability to win even with a questionable chin. Marcos Rene Maidana is more of a stalker-boxer than a brawler. Despite great power, Maidana’s defense is shaky at times and a fighter with great ring generalship can hit him and not get hit back. In addition, Maidana himself has gone down on the canvas and was almost knocked out by Victor Ortiz, contrary to the iron chin reputation of Argentine fighters as Carlos Monzon, Nicolino Locche, Jorge Castro, etc. It would quite ironic that if turns out that Khan actually stops Maidana instead of the opposite.
Khan has already made brash predictions about fighting Maidana. “I have spoken to Golden Boy and said “I want to fight Maidana he is the fourth best fighter in the division and i want to shut him up” Khan has stated. Unfortunately, there were other concerns about Khan that Maidana “was pricing himself out by asking for more money than he has ever made.” If he fights Maidana then the next step would be to fight Bradley as Khan states “I want Bradley next year as i think he will beat Alexander.”
Amir Khan has stated “talk is cheap” in his twitter account when responding to Bradley after being called out. The moment is now for Khan to expel the demons he suffered two years ago in Manchester. The idea of getting Freddie Roach to replace Jorge Rubio was to make Khan a complete and durable fighter. There won’t be any valid excuse to duck Maidana as both Bradley and Marquez are out of the picture, it’s time to let the fists do the talking and refute the “glass jaw” name tag by fighting Maidana on December 11.
