Khan Shows His Mettle
Amir Khan showed in defeating Madiana that he has the heart and grit of a true world champion.
A lot of people felt that Khan didn't have the toughness, the heart or the chin to survive and come out victorious against a lethal puncher in Marcos Maidana. He proved them wrong.
Whilst it was a very tough and competitive fight, and one in which Amir was rocked and in trouble on more than one occasion he showed that he has some characteristics that mark fighters out as true champions.
Most people never doubted that Amir had the speed and the skills to mix it with the very best - it was other important characteristics that needed to be proven. Amir was badly hurt in the 10th round and perhaps on the verge of being stopped but he took the shots, hung on and rode out the storm. Of course, I'm not now saying that Amir's chin is in the class of Marvin Hagler or Oliver McCall's, it's clearly not, but he can take decent shots and still hang in there and win the fight.
Amir started this fight really well, looking sharp and fast and he had Maidana down wincing in pain from a body shot in the 2nd round. Amir continued to press his advantage and put rounds in the bank with his crisp punches and slick movement.
However, Maidana was starting to catch Amir more frequently as the rounds progressed and Amir seemed to be open to the uppercut. Amir was still moving a lot but he was also using a lot of energy just getting away from Maidana.
Then came the torrid 10th round where Khan took some solid shots from Maidana. He lurched badly and was clearly very hurt, but he tried to move away and tie up Maidana when he could. Maidana was still landing some clean shots that were badly wobbling Amir but he hung in there until the bell.
The last two rounds were tough with Maidana in hot pursuit looking for the finishing shots. Amir was backing around the ring escaping from Maidana's wild swings but also coming back with some little combos of his own.
At the bell, Khan felt he'd done enough and the crowd and judges agreed. It was close but a fair decision. Maidana has a lot to offer but Khan has the speed and skills to go on from here. More work on his defence would be useful but I'm sure Freddie Roach has that all covered.
I think Amir has shown he belongs at the very top level in world boxing and whilst he may well get KO'd again at some point in his career I think there will also be some fantastic achievements along the way.
