Khan-Maidana signed and sealed for 11 December

According to his Twitter page, Amir Khan has signed to defend his WBA light-welterweight title against interim champion Marcus Maidana on 11 December. A venue is yet to be confirmed but London’s O2 Arena is believed to be in contention. Khan’s decision will end speculation that the Bolton man wanted no part of the big-punching Maidana who has recorded 27 knockouts in his 29 wins (against a solitary defeat).

Following his first round annihilation at the hands of Bredis Prescott two years ago Khan has impressively rebuilt his career. The 23-year-old has won his last five fights and captured the WBA light-welterweight title with a unanimous points victory over Andriy Kotelnik last July. Khan has made two subsequent defences against Dimitry Salita (TKO1) and Paule Malignaggi (TKO11) on his American debut at Madison Square Garden in May.

The suspicion, however, is that Khan’s handlers, Golden Boy, have been reluctant to match Amir against anyone with a ‘dig’, until now.

The heavy-handed yet crude Maidana is straight out of the Prescott mould and poses a serious threat to Khan’s questionable chin. The Argentinean slugger won a wild up-and-downer against the once highly touted Victor Ortitz (TKO6) last June to become the WBA’s interim light-welterweight champion but recently struggled against faded veteran DeMarcus Corley, uncharacteristically settling for the scorecards (W UD 12).

Interestingly, Maidana’s sole defeat came against Andriy Kotelnik on a split decision when he previously challenged for the WBA crown in February 2009. Khan had no such problems against the Ukrainian and will be confident of outboxing Maidana when they meet.