By Jake Donovan

Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana successfully made weight for their junior welterweight title fight Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Khan came in at the divisional limit of 140 lb, while Maidana was slightly lighter at 139 lb.

The bout serves as the live main event of the final broadcast for HBO this year. A large throng of Khan supporters are expected to make the trek from his native England for Saturday’s fight.

Kahn (23-1, 17KO) will be making the third defense of the alphabet title he acquired last July after soundly outpointing Andriy Kotelnik.

This weekend marks his debut in Las Vegas, and just his second fight overall in the United States after having spent his first fours as a pro exclusively in the United Kingdom.  

Maidana (29-1, 27KO) receives his long awaited mandatory title shot after having earned such status last June with his sixth round stoppage of Victor Ortiz, who appears in the televised co-feature against Lamont Peterson.  

The win over Ortiz served as Maidana’s breakthrough performance, though it required the Argentinean to recover from three knockdowns to rally back and force Ortiz to quit in a fight regarded as one of the best of 2009.

Ortiz and Peterson also both made the contracted weight for their12-round junior welterweight bout. Ortiz (28-2-1, 22KO) came in the max limit of 141 lb; Peterson (28-1, 14KO) was a ripped and ready 139 lb.

There stands a good chance that the winners of the televised portion of the show will square off sometime in 2011. Such status will mark a full return for Ortiz, who was being groomed for stardom until his quit job against Maidana.

The California resident has since won four straight, including a third round knockout of former titlist Vivian Harris in his most recent ring appearance this past September.

Peterson is at a similar must-win-out performance in his career. The former amateur standout fell short in his title challenge against Tim Bradley last December, and has just fought once since then, stopping Damian Fuller in seven rounds this past April.

The bout with Fuller was Peterson’s last with Top Rank, as both he and younger brother Anthony are now free agents. Should Peterson win on Saturday, he will have to grant Golden Boy Promotions options on his next several fights, though a worthy risk considering their deep stable of fighters in and around the 140 lb. division.

Off camera, Joan Guzman (30-0-1, 17KO) returns to the ring for the first time since his pair of bouts with Ali Funeka. The undefeated former two-division titlist takes on journeyman Jason Davis (11-7-1, 3KO) in a tune-up for what is hoped to be a crack at Khan sometime in 2011.

The comeback tour isn’t off to a very promising start, however. Guzman, who has a history of struggling at the scales, weighed in at 144.5 lb for his 10-round bout with Davis, who came in at 143 lb. Both fighters were over the contracted limit of 141 lb.

This marks the second straight time Guzman has come in heavy, missing weight by 9 lb for his rematch with Ali Funeka earlier this year. Guzman won the bout but was denied the opportunity to win the lightweight belt that was only at stake for Funeka.  

Guzman and Davis were both given two hours to lose necessary pounds, but instead agreed to proceed with fight at their present weight.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/JakeNDaBox or submit questions/comments to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.