Amir Khan: "Pacquiao gave me his best shot and couldn't wobble me"

Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana faced off once more on the Los Angeles leg of their media tour earlier today ahead of their December bout, and as usual both were making bold predictions. Many consider Maidana to be Khan's first true test since winning the WBA light welterweight title last July against Andriy Kotelnik, and are predicting a tough fight for the Bolton born champion. Since winning his title Khan has defended it just twice, against Dmitriy Salita and Paulie Malignaggi, both light punchers who he handled without any problems in either case. Maidaia though is a different kind of opponent altogether, and while he has been outboxed by lesser fighters than Khan, he also has a big punch, which is something that Khan has yet to face since moving up in weight. Even in losing to Kotenik and looking vulnerable against Victor Ortiz and DeMarcus Corley, Maidana managed to land his big punches, which will be the main concern for Khan, whose chin has been called into question several times in the past. It has been widely speculated by Khan's detractors that either his promoters or trainers have kept him away from big punchers ever since he was knocked out as a lightweight against Breidis Prescott. Addressing the question of his less than rock solid chin, Khan said the press conference: "When people say I have a weak chin, I respond by saying that Pacquiao gave me his best shot and couldn't wobble me. Now obviously Khan is entitled to defend himself from all the accusations that he is ducking big punchers, or that he is being protected by Golden Boy, but claiming to be unfazed by a puncher as powerful as Pacquiao doesn't quite add up to previous evidence. This is the same Amir Khan wobbled on occasion by several British domestic level fighters, and knocked down by the feather-fisted Willie Limond (33-3, 8KOs). Pacquiao, now effectively fighting two weights North of Khan, has finished four of his last five opponents, and is expected to stop the much bigger Antonio Margarito in November at junior middleweight. Not to cast aspersions on the veracity of Khan's claims, but was Pacquiao really giving him his absolute best shot? Khan's oversensitivity over his chin aside, he also said of taking on Maidana: "I'm going do something different in this fight, something nobody's ever seen me do. I'm changing my style. "I'm going to come in and be the big puncher. This fight, is going to be explosive. Not to be outdone, Maidana said of Khan: "I felt Amir was scared of me because he wasn't giving me the opportunity to fight him. It's been almost a year and half since I won the interim title. I'm excited that we're going to fight. If what Khan is saying above is true, then the fight will almost certainly end with a knockout either way. Mandana and Khan are both vulnerable enough that either stands a good chance of finishing the other if they go for broke and look for the finish. That being said, a brawl with both trading big punches and being aggressive is playing right into Maidana's hands, and Khan may find himself in trouble if he sets out to prove his critics wrong by standing and trading more than he needs to. Aside from possibly having the weaker jaw, and Maidana is no George Chuvalo himself, Khan seems to hold advantages in most other areas. He's much faster, both in movement and handspeed. He defends better, he has a longer reach, and he trains with the best trainer in the world. That said though, it would only take one of Maidana's punches to land square to end the fight. Local fans I have discussed the fight with are mainly either predicting a shutout on the cards from Khan or a knockout from Maidana, although if Khan's talk of changing his style holds true then things could end very differently. http://www.examiner.com/fight-sports-in-pittsburgh/amir-khan-pacquiao-gave-me-his-best-shot-and-couldn-t-wobble-me