Amir Khan Defeats Marcos Maidana on a Classic Junior Welterweight Fight Card

Amir Khan showed the boxing public that he's ready for superstardom. In the December 11 fight between Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana, he was rated as the second-best Junior Welterweight (140 pounds) and Marcos Maidana as the fourth-best Junior Welterweight. Maidana had some nice rallies, but Khan overcame with a unanimous decision over.

Amir Khan delivered an amazing first round, out-boxing Marcos Maidana with vicious bodyshots that sent him to the canvas. Maidana got off the canvas and kept coming forward.

Marcos Maidana found Amir Khan's chin. Many questioned whether Maidana would obliterate Khan if he found his chin. Khan took some of Maidana's best shots and returned fire with some hard shots of his own.

In the later rounds starting with round 10, Maidana finally hurt Khan back with some vicious uppercuts and bodyshots. Maidana saw his chance for a knockout and swung hard at the improved but still vulnerable chin of Khan, expending all his energy in the process. This allowed Khan to maneuver and outboxed his way out of trouble to claim the victory.

One mistake that was easy to see was that Khan did not continue to land the hard bodyshots that sent Maidana to the canvas in the first round. Had Khan done that, he would've had a knockout victory instead of a decision.

Overall, a great fight card. I also saw the Lamont Peterson Vs. Victor Ortiz fight. I loved Peterson's heart and excellent boxing ability in the match, but I felt Ortiz was robbed of the decision victory.

Victor Ortiz knocked Peterson down twice and kept damaging Peterson throughout the fight. Peterson rallied nicely for a round or two in their ten round clash, but Ortiz kept closing the gap to land more whenever Peterson landed too much.

Peterson did display a lot of heart in getting off the canvas twice and boxing Ortiz off of him. It was an impressive display, especially considering the fact that Victor Ortiz outweighed him by nine pounds and was clearly the harder puncher.

The fight being ruled a draw was a little too inaccurate for me. The only way I could see some rounds being given to Peterson is if the judges saw Ortiz backing up instead of forcing the fight as a sign that Peterson was doing something right.

Ortiz was knocked out not too long ago by Marcos Maidana in a match that Ortiz was winning. This may have caused Ortiz to have a lot of caution when taking punches. I came to this conclusion after witnessing his constant lateral and backwards movement.

Ortiz's chin stood the test of Peterson, though a weaker puncher than Maidana should still restore some of Ortiz's lost confidence in his body's ability to take a punch. Overall, a very good fight with a pretty bad decision.

Both fights are from the talent-crowded Junior Welterweight (140 lbs) division. I hope these top guys continue to fight each other in match after match to create future classics and learn and grow together.

I feel that in a year or two, these fighters, along with the other division superstars like Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander (who face off January 29), could become the type of great boxers that produce clashes that resemble the 1980's round robin of boxing with Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns.