Khan shows heart and style

BOXING:IN SURVIVING three of the most awful minutes of his career en route to retaining the World Boxing Association light-welterweight title, Amir Khan ensured that he will be remembered no longer just for Breidis Prescott but for another South American of frightening power, Marcos Maidana.

Hours after their fight at the Mandalay Bay on Saturday night, seasoned and callow observers alike were talking of little else but the 10th of 12 rounds, one that reduced the disappointingly small crowd to a volley of gasps and ensured that Khan can now be sold in the US not just as an amiable stylist with a nice smile and a quaint, rasping accent, but as a crowd-pleasing cash cow.

He wants no less than Floyd Mayweather Jr – if the American can avoid a prison sentence for domestic violence. But if Mayweather is still at large later in the year, Khan has one great thing going for him: he is not Manny Pacquiao, whom Mayweather has been at pains to handcuff in demands that have made a fight between them hard to arrange.

This fight and this single round deserved a grander stage than a half-empty cavern that can hold 9,000 fans; those present and those watching at home will count themselves fortunate to have witnessed a career-changing performance by Khan. It will not take much to sell Khan-Mayweather on the back of this.

Paradoxically, it was one of Khan’s most naive displays. Yet, in that naivety – where the foot-on-pedal rushes of the Argentinian challenger drove him to the ropes, stripping the Briton of his great asset, mobility – Khan found something he knew was there, even if others doubted it: a heart the size of Bolton.

That heart was beating just as strongly the night Colombia’s Prescott knocked him out in 54 seconds in Manchester two years ago – his life seems destined to be defined in dramatic cameos – but here, on his Las Vegas debut and after 12 weeks getting ready, he reached a level of fitness that some elite athletes could only dream about. It is what kept him on his shaking legs three rounds short of the finish line as Maidana battered him without reply and with every ounce of his considerable strength.

Remarkably, Khan got through it. Even more remarkably, he found some dregs of strength to trade with Maidana and nearly steal the 11th. Ultimately, though, he had to hang on as his little foe came at him again in the last round; had there been no bell, they’d still be going at it.

There were some ugly exchanges between members of both camps in the ring afterwards and Maidana almost fled as soon as the scores were announced. Although he still thought he had won, he was decent enough to admit later that it probably was not the most appropriate response to a close fight.

The final judgment was 114-111 twice and 113-112, a fair assessment. I had Khan 115-112 ahead at the end of a contest that swung wildly, mostly Khan’s way from rounds one to nine, and in favour of Maidana in a gripping conclusion.

It was almost over in the first round, when Khan cut his man in half with a left to the liver that had him doubled up in agony on the canvas. Not many get up from such a shot, but Maidana must be made of a concrete-rubber mix, because he bounced up and got back into it. “I can still feel it now,” the Argentinian said an hour after the fight.

He gave up a point in the fifth, when his flying elbow coming out of a clinch caught the referee Joe Cortez, an unfortunate misdemeanour. When Khan controlled the middle of the ring with his jab and free-flowing combinations, Maidana looked pedestrian. But he was not there to impress stylistically and took to charging with no pretence at defence, swinging from either hip.

Khan rippled pleasingly on the eye at the light-welter limit of 10 stones, a pound heavier than his opponent who, with his skinny Mohawk and sharp, dark eyes, resembled a bantam cock. He certainly scraps like one, having stopped 27 of 30 opponents before colliding with the iron will and surprisingly strong chin of the champion. But he had given up enough of the early rounds to be trailing throughout on all cards.

It is easy in these sorts of big fights for the winner to ignore the bad bits. Khan, with the ever-honest Freddie Roach in his corner, did not indulge himself in delusion. He admitted his mistakes: leaving himself exposed on the ropes and walking on to a couple of haymakers a novice could have avoided.

Roach reckoned he “almost lost the fight” by failing to stick to a game plan that had him circling to the right to avoid Maidana’s trademark finisher. Less involved parties were less critical.