Comments Thread For: Amir Khan Weathers The Storm To Avoid Disaster in Vegas

[Kris Silver]

No doubt!That corrupt bastard was there to help Khan, when Khan was in serious trouble in 10 round he helped Khan 3 times giving him some extra seconds to survive.A referee can't do that.
Unbeliavable!Then he takes a point from Maidana when Maidana turned around his back!

Why would Cortez be biased for Khan as opposed to Maidana? He wasn't exactly helpful to Amir's mate Ricky.

The breakups were because it was getting messy, they were tangled, and Maidana wasn't standing back hitting which would be ok, he was throwing himself on Amir, holding and hitting. Referee's are quite right to break up these and some do more than others. Would you like to see a KO as a result of holding and hitting or crashed heads? I bet you would if it favoured Maidana. Whose biased then.

As for the point deduction, I think it may have been for the blatant elbow Maidana threw behind him to hit Khan which instead brushed onto Cortez. Any ref would deduct a point for that esp when there were buts and other offenses occurring.

[Rolaz]

Maidana has exposed some weak points of Khan; If Khan will fight either Bradley or Alexander, Khan will have Problem!

[Grange_27]

Great fight , can't see how Cortez was favouring Kahn tbh. Cortez always refs a fight like that.

Credit for Kahn he showed a fighters heart to get the win. I can't wait to watch him vs Bradley or Alexander should be a great fight ,hope its Bradley.

[Rome-By-Ko]

Wow what a great fight,Khan really impressed me..He took some crazy shots from Maidana and stood on his feet the whole time..Cong**** to Khan supporters and to Khan and his team that was very impressive..I also must say it was a very good fight,props to Maidana for staying in the fight as well..He never stop fighting and never gave up alot of heart on Maidana..Great night of fights,funny thing was I scored the Ortiz fight a draw and when they said it was a draw I was shock..I just knew they were gonna rob Peterson..Great night great fights...

[Dave Rado]

I posted this on Dec 8:

I think both fighters will surprise a lot of people, and will perform much better than many people expect them to - especially Maidana, who I think is being seriously under-estimated in some quarters. I still have Khan as the narrow favourite, but I think it will be by far his toughest fight since he teamed up with Roach, and that Maidana will hurt him a few times during the fight.

On September 26, I posted this:

It's not just one punch power [that Maidana has] though. He is a pretty good pressure fighter, if not quite an elite one. And he sometimes throws from awkward angles and his punches can be hard to anticipate. Kotelnik has an excellent defence and a granite chin, but Maidana landed plenty of clean punches on Kotelnik and most people thought Maidana deserved to get a narrow decision win in that fight.

Admittedly Kotelnik doesn't have the speed or lateral movement that Khan has, but as long as Maidana has a decent gameplan, and doesn't just head hunt, he does have a decent chance, IMO, and it will be easily Khan's toughest fight to date. Even if Khan wins, I would be very surprised if he isn't hurt at some point in the fight.

On September 11 I posted this:

I think you're completely wrong about the stamina. Maidana's stamina was fine in the last few rounds against Kotelnik. Against Corley, he clearly hadn't trained properly and was unfit. You can bet your life he'll be fully trained for the Khan fight. OTOH, although Khan dominated most of the Kotelnik fight, he looked decidedly gassed in the last two rounds, and if Kotelnik had a big punch, which he doesn't, Khan would have been in serious trouble in the last round.

Although it's true that Khan is likely to outbox Maidana for long stretches, Maidana's best chance is not to throw everything into the early rounds and risk punching himself out. He's an effective pressure fighter, and provided he's fit, his best hope is to constantly try to cut the ring off, try to bully Khan into the ropes, keep up a decent workrate - especially to the body - without punching himself out, and wait for an opening, which is bound to come his way sooner or later. Then when the opening does come, it'll be Khan's moment of truth. If Maidana uses those tactics, you can bet your life Khan will be hurt at some stage of the fight, and then we'll see whether his powers of recovery have improved under Roach's tutelage, and whether he can hold on effectively until his head has cleared. If he can, he'll win. If he can't, he'll lose.

I think all three posts were right on the button.

Maidana exposed all the people who claimed that he was a one-dimensional bum, and Khan exposed all the people who claimed that Maidana only had to land one solid punch and it would be over. It was obvious all along to anyone who has really followed both fighters' careers that both claims were ridiculous.

Props to Khan for showing world class skills in the early rounds and great heart when he was out on his feet in the 10th. Props to Maidana for showing that he is a world class pressure fighter who can cut off the ring effectively, who is far more accurate and has far better timing than most gave him credit for, and who always finds a way to land his power punches, often from very unorthodox angles.

I hope the people who underrated both fighters, especially the huge number who seriously underrated Maidana, man up and admit they were wrong.

You can see why Roach and Khan tried to postpone this showdown for as long as they possibly could though. It had nothing whatsoever to do with money, as they pretended. They just didn't think Khan was ready yet for such a dangerous fight - and they were right. Khan still needs to do a lot of work on how to react when he gets hurt. His tactics in the last three rounds were all wrong, and he took far more shots in the late rounds than he should have. And all the way through the fight, he was horribly vulnerable to the uppercut - Maidana was able to land that punch almost at will. Roach will need to do a lot of work on that.

[King Ju-Ju]

maidana is 1 bad mother ****er. gotta give it 2 him. khan can kiss my ass. dude thinks he is manny pacquiao now putting his hands up in the air after he got hit with something good. props 2 him though, he won his fight. now 4 the ortiz-peterson fight, wtf! im mad at vic and the judges. i had ortiz winning man, idk what those judges was thinking. i cant lie, i thought ortiz could have done more but i think he deserved the win.

[TRAV1$]

I wouldn't exactly call 114-111 (twice) a "narrow decision".

[Dave Rado]

I wouldn't exactly call 114-111 (twice) a "narrow decision".

The third judge scored it correctly - 113-112 was right on the button.

If the other two judges had scored just one of the close rounds that they scored to Khan, to Maidana instead, then they'd have had it 113-112 as well. And there were several very close rounds that were hard to score.

And without the point deduction (which was harsh, IMO), it would then have been scored a draw.

So yes, it was extremely close.

And despite showing amazing heart, Khan would certainly have been stopped if Maidana hadn't run out of gas in the last three rounds. Despite that, Khan barely landed a solid punch in those rounds, he just ran, much of the time on unsteady legs. So in every respect he barely sc****d by. But it was still a great win for him, though it shows he's certainly not the finished product yet.

[TRAV1$]

The third judge scored it correctly - 113-112 was right on the button.

If the other two judges had scored just one of the close rounds that they scored to Khan, to Maidana instead, then they'd have had it 113-112 as well. And there were several very close rounds that were hard to score.

And without the point deduction (which was harsh, IMO), it would then have been scored a draw.

So yes, it was extremely close.

And Khan despite showing amazing heart, would certainly have been stopped if Maidana hadn't run out of gas in the last three rounds. Despite that, Khan barely landed a solid punch in those rounds, he just ran.

But I'm not talking about that
I'm talking about the two official 114-111 scores.

[Boxingf@n]

This was the FIGHT OF THE YEAR for me.. Khan showed some amazing boxing skills but also shows some stamina issues torwards the end.. Maybe it was the unrelenting pressure from Maidana. Still don't think Khan is ready for the likes of Mayweather yet... Not sure he ever will. Mind you we have seen him fight a perfect fight in the past. So maybe it was that little Argie..