Khan said last night that he wants Maidana, and after rewatching Marcos fight with Ortiz, it's made me wonder if Khan can keep him away and avoid his big punches.
I don't know. I'm not sold on Khan's punching power, he's got great speed but not great power. Decent, but nothing special. Definitely not as good as Ortiz IMO.
He will need to adopt a more safety first style against Maidana. Maybe a mix between his bout against Kotelnik, and the Khan what was on display last night. He CANNOT lunge in like he was against Malignaggi...and he will need to show more variety than he did last night. Khan can outbox Maidana using his height, reach? and range...but Maidana will be in his face constantly for 12 rounds.
Khan should take him head on at the first bell and surprise him. I bet Maidana thinks that he'll try and outbox him the whole fight... He wouldn't expect a heads up fight.
I believe he can. Khan has the height, reach, speed and that awesome jab to keep Maidana from rushing in. Maidana is a KO artist but he's easy to hit. Khan's power, IMO, is under-rated.
I'll put my vcash on Maidana if the fight ever takes place... I was impressed by Khan last night, but I think Maidana is his poison.
This fight will probably ends on a ko. Still not sure who will get it. But to answer your question, yes, i think Khan can keep him away.
Khan did not really get to plant his feet vs Paulie due to his style, movement. Khan has power and Maidana is open to Khan's right.
For Khan to win he'll need to stop him early because with the agressive nature of Maidana and his powerful hands it won't take much for him to put Amir's lights out and he's bound to land on Khan at some point.
Maidana can win the fight by landing a lot less punches than Khan, put it that way. I don't see khan's cumulative damage stacking up enough before he eats a big punch.
I hope the betting odds on this fight reflect the scepticism there is on message boards. Khan stops Maidana
Some people have suggested that big punchers are Khan's kryptonite...not an unfair assumption, given that Khan's biggest weakness is clearly his low level punch resistance. I haven't seen much of Maidana, but he seems surprisingly fast (I pictured a slow, lumbering slugger from all the descriptions of him), and he clearly hits like a truck, combined with relentless aggression. I could see him giving Khan big problems... People point to the fact that Kotelnik apparently schooled Maidana, and Khan outboxed Kotelnik, but putting aside the silliness of this 'triangle fallacy', Kotelnik is a tough guy...never been stopped, if I remember right, and has a tight guard. Khan is as fragile as an eggshell in comparison, and even if he blocked Maidana's punches, I have to wonder if he could still be badly hurt. Khan likes to fight off the front foot -- he's an attacking fighter, a bit of a super-fast, aggressive boxer-puncher, who tries to blitz you with speed and combinations, in a similar way to Pac, but obviously not on the same level. He's one of those rare aggressive guys with a good jab, though -- that jab could very well save him against Maidana. It certainly proved to be the key against Paulie. To beat Maidana, Khan needs to force himself to fight differently than he usually likes to -- he has to fight like a pure boxer, with the odd trademark combo now and then, but nothing too risky. He has to work on his footwork and movement around the ring, and he has to polish that jab even more, and find ways to time Maidana coming in and punish him with the straight-right. He can't afford to even let his back touch the ropes in this one. I'm not sure if he beats Maidana, but I know that it would be one hell of a fight.
I think he might be able to outbox Maidana but I think he will have real problems with Tim Bradley or Devon Alexander.