Datsue wrote:The thing I think a lot of people are forgetting is that Amir has no bloody head movement when he eventually stops bouncing around & decides to let those nine-punch shoeshines go. This will lead to him being flattened again at some point.
I was, after watching it again sober last night, overall disappointed with his performance -- I thought coming in that Maidana wouldn't lay a glove on him & get outclassed for a late stoppage. Instead I saw Amir waste vast amounts of energy shoeshining at the guy's gloves & (after about the fourth) get uncomfortable every single time he couldn't back away or get the distance to let fly with those mad combos. He is incredibly vulnerable on the inside (thank you, patented Freddie Roach "defend against uppercuts by clamping gloves either side of your face putting your chin down & hoping for the best" tactic!). For all his mad speed & bravery he's so fvcking predictable it's untrue. He was bloody lucky Maidana has a shite defence & awful feet-in-concrete movement.
Maybe it's just the gap between expectation & reality that's dimming it for me, but all this "Maidana couldn't KO him so no-one could" is utter bullshite if you ask me & just as much an overreaction as the "Anyone can KO him" of Riddick Blowe, Boxerbob, G0mez, Overhand Right etc etc before this fight.
On the night I said that Khan boxed foolishly, and I stand by that statement; however, you're underrating Maidana hugely. He's far, far better than people give him credit for. I thought as you did after the Ortiz fight -- crude slugger who knows how to throw a heavy punch -- kinda like Valero plus five pounds. However, I went and watched a few of his other fights on youtube and via torrents, and he's better than you think. First, he doesn't have fast feet, but he's adept at cutting down the ring. Second, he's got faster hands than you think. Third, his jab is better than you think. Fourth, he carries his power late into a fight. These attributes, combined with his ghoulish ability to absorb punishment, the white hot pressure he brings and him being an allround bad@ss tough guy are going to make him extremely awkward for any fighter. And, indeed, isn't it Maidana exactly the sort of fighter we wanted to see Khan in with? Doesn't he have exactly the kind of attributes against which we thought Khan would struggle? Didn't we want to see Khan's chin tested? And doesn't Maidana have the hardest punch at 140?
The way I see it is this: Khan just beat (depending on how you ranked it) the second, third, or fourth best guy in a hot division who happened to have the ideal style to overcome what Khan brings to a fight, and happened to have exactly the kind of punch that would test Khan's hitherto fragile chin. And the Kid came through. Not with flying colours, but he came through. In a thrilling fight.
Again, there are things to work on: he did jump in more, he did throw too many shoeshine combinations when he could have picked the guy off behind the jab. He did, I noticed, for the first time since he was under Roach, get his chin infront of his knee by a lot, and lose balance, because he was reaching instead of moving his feet first. But he's 24 and in his 24th fight with one of the best trainers in the world. He can put these things right, and, indeed, had already put them right to a certain degree against Kotelnik (another fighter not to be sneezed at) and Malignaggi.
Just my view.
