Amir Khan beat Manny Pacquiao and he will also defeat Marcos Maidana tomorrow

WBA world light welterweight champion Amir “King” Khan will defend his crown against current WBA interim super lightweight titlist Marcos Maidana tomorrow night at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Khan (23-1, 17 KOs), a Pakistani-British boxer who became the youngest Englishman to win an Olympic medal when he captured a silver as a lightweight at the 2004 games in Greece, last fought Paulie Malignaggi in May when he earned a violently decisive 11^th round TKO victory at Madison Square Garden.

Malignaggi, an Italian-American from Brooklyn who is the former IBF junior welterweight king, is a defensive wizard.

The brutal manner in which Khan thrashed Malignaggi (27-4, 5 KOs) was alarming.

Khan is a prizefighter who possesses unlimited potential and abilities in the ring, and he doesn’t really have any glaring warts in his arsenal.

If Khan does have a weak feature in his fight game, it would be his relatively suspect chin.

In September 2008, Khan was demolished by Breidis Prescott when he suffered a first round knockout loss that cost him his WBO Intercontinental lightweight crown.

During the brief massacre, Khan was floored twice by Prescott (23-2, 19 KOs) and he was ultimately beaten a mere 54 seconds into the opening round.

Since partnering with legendary trainer Freddie Roach, Khan has rebounded nicely and emerged victorious in five consecutive bouts.

"He is a whole different fighter," said Roach, 50, a native of Dedham who was voted Trainer of the Year on four occasions by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

"He's 100 percent better. I've never had a fighter to listen so well, take direction as well and stick to the game plan as well as Amir Khan. He's really become a very good professional fighter. He knows how to fight. He likes to [mix it up] a little bit too much sometimes, I think, but I won't take that away from him because he knows when to do it and when not to."

Khan is so much better now that he apparently trumped iconic pugilist Manny Pacquiao a slew of times during recent sparring sessions that Roach oversaw.

"Some days he got a bit of the best of Manny, some days Manny got the best of him," Roach said. "It was explosive. It was like a cockfight.”

Said Khan, 24, "If you can do really well against [Pacquiao], then I'm sure you'll do well against anybody. If you can catch Manny, then I'm sure that someone like Maidana is going to be a lot easier to catch."

As noted by his sensational knockout percentage, Maidana (29-1, 27 KOs) is an extremely hard puncher who could send Khan onto Queer Street with one definitive blow.

Khan recognizes Maidana’s power and acknowledged he needs to stick with the game plan Roach developed for this contest.

"We know he's probably the biggest puncher from all the guys I’ve faced," Khan said. "We have to be careful because of his punches. They could hurt you in the first round or the last round. We have to stay on the edge and you have to stay sharp and focused all the way through the fight."

At only 27, Marcos Maidana is a tremendous boxer who clearly has a gleaming future in the ring.

Nevertheless, despite Maidana’s potency, expect King Khan’s vast quickness and great stamina to alter the course of the fight in the later rounds.

Maidana likely won't see Khan's punches coming and the Brit will retain his title with an electrifying late-round stoppage this weekend.