By Gareth A Davies, telegraph.co.th
It was heart-racing fare. Amir Khan retained the World Boxing Association light-welterweight by unanimous decision against as tough a man as you could find. Argentine Marcos Maidana has a chin of granite, and a heart so large they should have found him a title for this performance, too. He was gritty, and desperate, at times, but he made the fight. And enhanced his reputation.
It will be nominated as one of the fights of the year. It was by unanimous decision on the judges’ cards, 114-111, 114-111, 113-112.
In reality, in a fight thrilling from first to last, Khan hung on by a finger nail to his title, in a very tough fight. It will have done his reputation wonders in the US. But in a sense it revealed the very best, and the very worst of him.
Within the frame, Khan put Maidana on the floor with a liver shot in the opening round, and it looked over. Maidana then came back ferociously, and although he had a point deducted for an elbow in the fifth round by referee Joe Cortez, battled back into the fight in the middle rounds to bury his way into Khan.
Throughout the contest, Khan’s lightning fists scored in bunches. But Maidana’s moment came in the tenth, Khan caught by a winging right hand halfway through the round. His legs had gone, and he barely knew where he was. Somehow, throwing no punches, he got through the next minute, firing back finally with 24 seconds left in the round. Perhaps he should have taken a knee. Perhaps he wasn’t conscient enough. Perhaps it might have given Maidana
It was the toughest, and most telling round of Khan’s career. He survived it, just as his career survives. His head cleared, he fought back in the eleventh, and moved in the twelfth, but his senses were still slightly scrambled. He needs to gather them again soon, because there is still much work to be done before he is truly to be accepted as elite level. Hell of a fight. Jack Hirsch, President of The Boxing Writers Association of America.
Source: blogs.telegraph.co.uk
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