Amir Khan Assures Big Money Bout in 2011 After Fight of the Year vs. Maidana

Amir Khan assured himself of a big money fight in 2011, after successfully defending his world light-welterweight crown over 12 bruising rounds in Las Vegas last weekend.

Such was the intensity of the battle that many boxing plaudits are calling it the "Fight of the Year," particularly as it had attracted a huge American prime time TV audience, who witnessed Khan at his absolute best and showed him to be a truly courageous fighter with an enormous will to win.

His opponent was Marcos Maidana, a hard hitting Argentine, with a fearsome record of 29 wins in 30 fights, with 27 of those wins coming by stoppages or by knockouts.

Maidana's only career loss came in his last attempt at the 140-pound title, a controversial points decision against Andreas Kotelnik.

The WBA, however, had made Maidana the mandatory challenger for Khan who was of course the man who relieved Kotelnik of that same title in July 2009.

Khan showed throughout the fight that he had the superior technique which he used to great effect, clearly dazzling Maidana with his incredible hand speed; Khan, in fact, had put the Argentine on the "seat of his pants" as early as the first round, after connecting with a huge left hook to the body.

Much to everyone’s surprise however, Maidana survived the round and the fight went on without any further knock downs.

Khan went on to dominate the early rounds and was helped considerably when Maidana was deducted a point at the end of the fifth round for an attempted elbow. By halfway, in fact, the "Brit" had done enough to probably win the fight, but it was around that time that Maidana started to connect with his bigger shots.

Khan, it has to be said, had showed signs of slowing down, which allowed his opponent plenty of opportunities to get to him.

The 10th round was one of the worst of Khan’s career, after the Argentine launched an almost murderous onslaught, catching Khan repeatedly with his right hand and looking very likely to force a stoppage, some commentators during the round were calling upon referee, Joe Cortez to halt the fight.

Khan’s trainer in fact, Freddie Roach, admitted post fight that he was very close to pulling Khan out of the fight in the 10th. However, the 24 year old British fighter returned to the corner at the end of that brutal round, barely believing that he had survived but at least he was still alert enough to continue and able to get a vital 30 second rest.

Incredibly, Khan not only went out to contest the 11th round, he actually took it, managing to get his rhythm back and able to deliver several telling shots on the now tiring Maidana.

At the end of the fight, all three judges had Khan the winner, two of them giving him a three point win, while the other had it extremely close with just one point in it for Khan.

Roach said after the fight that it was the night a boy became a man, a sentiment echoed by Oscar De La Hoya, who has tipped Khan for big things following his win in Vegas.

A fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr is a distinct possibly for Khan, with late 2011 being muted—a fight that would assure a huge pay day for Khan just six years after turning pro following his gold medal in the 2004 Olympic Games.

However, being good enough to beat the 41 fight, 41 win 'Pretty Boy' remains a huge ask, as fellow Englishman, Ricky Hatton discovered and the boxing odds would have Mayweather as the clear favourite to extend his impressive record.