By Rick Reeno
WBA interim-junior welterweight champion Marcos Maidana is nearly a month away before the biggest fight of his career. On December 11 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Maidana will challenge Amir Kahn for the WBA's full championship at 140-pounds. Maidana told BoxingScene.com that he's right on schedule with his weight. He doesn't anticpate any issues on the scale.
"It's about one month to the fight, and I've been around 149, 150-pounds. I feel great," Maidana told BoxingScene.com.
Maidana doesn't believe some of Khan's statements. The once-beaten British boxer recently told BoxingScene that he absolutely won't run from Maidana. Actually, Khan doesn't want anyone to be surprised if a "fight" breaks out in early rounds. Maidana is still sticking to the belief that Khan will stay mobile during every moment of the fight.
"I think he's going to run. He's going to walk all night. If he wants to stand and trade with me, with punches, that's good because that's the fight I want - so it's going to be better," Maidana said. "I'm going to win. By way of knockout would be better, but I'm not worried about [not getting] a decision.
If Maidana beats Khan, there will be numerous opportunities on the table - including the winner of January's Timothy Bradley-Devon Alexander unification, a rematch with Victor Ortiz or a move to the welterweight division.
"This is the fight that I want to win. I want to beat Amir Khan and then I'll look forward [to the future]. I don't care who's going to be next. I want to have three fights next year, or more," Maidana said.
"First I want to win this fight with Amir Khan and then we can rematch Ortiz or whoever it is. I don't care, I'll fight anyone. I want to be number one at 140. I want to beat everyone here. And then if I can go up, I'm going up [to welterweight]."
In his last fight, against DeMarcus Corley on August 28 in Argentina, Maidana struggled at certain points and his stamina began to fail him in the late rounds. There were rumors that Maidana barely trained for the fight. He admits that his training camp was very short and he had some problems because there wasn't enough time to have an adequate training camp.
"We had very little time to train and Corley was very well prepared. That was the only problem, but we won," Maidana said.
November is a huge month for the boxing scene in Argentina. This Saturday in New Jersey, Lucas Matthysse will face Zab Judah in a high-stakes junior welterweight eliminator, and Sergio Martinez defends his WBC middleweight title in a rematch with Paul Williams on November 27 in Atlantic City. Maidana is praying that everyone pulls through to put Argentina in the boxing spotlight.
"I hope these guys win because it's the only way to have boxing in Argentina rise up again and the boxers from Argentina can go to the United States and make a name [for themselves]. I think boxing is going up again in Argentina but it is going to be better if we get a couple of more champions," Maidana said.