By James Slater – WBA light-welterweight king Amir Khan was a studio guest on SKY Sports last night, there primarily to give his expert opinion on John Murray’s European lightweight title fight with Andriy Kudryavtsev. But at the end of the show, after Khan had given his take on Murray’s 9th-round-winning performance – a performance that led the 140-pound champ to believe Murray is still “a little amateurish,” and that he needs to “look at the tape and learn from his mistakes” – Amir talked about his own upcoming fight with Marcos Maidana.
Khan said he is looking forward to the fight, one he fully expects to be just as good as Maidana’s winning war with Victor Ortiz (Ortiz, who has been mentioned as the next foe for Murray, on the Khan-Maidana under-card. Khan, by the way, says he thinks Murray should take this fight), and Amir also revealed how he took his chance to size up the Argentine at last week’s official press conference in London..
It was good to see him in person,” Khan said. “He’s not taller than me. I think he was around 11-stones (154-pounds), and the fight is at ten-stones (140-pounds). He looked a little chubby to me. He was very quiet.”
The question that springs to mind from Khan’s comments is, is Maidana having weight problems once again? Sure, he has a fair amount of time to get fully ready for the big fight, but Maidana did struggle, possibly due to weight issues, in his last fight; the points win over a game DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley. All but exhausted in the later rounds, Maidana held on and won the decision. It goes without saying, though, that if Maidana leaves a lot in his training camp when working for the Khan fight, and that if he weakens himself losing weight, he will be in trouble against the speedster.
Khan also said that he never ever ran from Maidana, and that his going to Las Vegas to fight him proves as much. Khan did say he wanted the fight in the U.K, “for his fans,” but he is now excited about his Vegas debut.
“Is this a risky fight for you?” Khan was asked in the studio. “Yeah, every fight is a risk,” Amir replied.
Perhaps no fight in Amir Khan’s now 24-fight pro career has presented him with the amount of risk and danger that this fight does!