Now that the euphoria has died down it may be time for a balanced view on this good fight. (knowledgeable replies welcome) It was exciting only because Khan's chin was in question and there was the perception that when Maidana landed a solid shot khan would tumble . He didn't, although he did take far too many shots in order to roundly disprove the "glass jaw" theory. He has very fast hands and his body shot in the first round was superb. He fought very well but, to be fair, he was hanging on for the last few rounds. Maidana looked like a slugger trying to land the big shot that he thought would drop Khan. There was no other game plan other than a few subtle changes to how he could land his big shot. Khan took far more big shots than most people thought that he was capable of taking. But he should have the skills not to be taking these shots. Having said all of that, thanks to both boxers, it was a great fight to watch and hopefully most boxing fans will now stop questioning Khans chin and give him the credit that is his due after this performance.
Yep very nice fight. Its a shame I thought Maidana pretty clearly beat Kotelnik, which would mean Khan would have taken a undefeated record as well as beating one of the top 4 light welters out there. The thing is Maidana was not really setting up his shots yet was still landing on Khan. Bradley would definatly put a bit more thought into his shots. Mabye that would mean he could get overwhelmed though?
with another ref Maidana could have won TKO round 10. Khan was out on his feet taking flush power shots and some refs would have stopped it.
A great fight it was, Khan faced his achilles Heel in Maidana and Khan was getting closed down in a way that he had to cover up rather than box his way out of trouble, sometimes that ring seemed to shrink around Khan. Against lesser punchers than Maidana, and thats pretty much everybody in this division Khan will be able to feel more comftable about boxing his way out of contacts. Basiclly if Khan can stay up from Maidana bombs then im not too sure who he needs to be worrying about at 140.
Im glad he didn't refs nowadays stop a fight when a guy is hurt thats too mcuh and it takes epic performances away from us. Amir khan definitely made me a fan tonight.
True, some refs may have stopped it. But, imo it would have been wrong to do so. Khan was moving and was still trying to cover up after taking those bombs. How on earth did el chino recover from that 1st round liver shot and go the distance?? Amazing. All in all a great fight.
