Marcos Maidana clash will be the fight of the year, says Amir Khan

Amir Khan says: get ready for the fight of the year. His opponent at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas tomorrow night, Marcos Maidana, echoes those sentiments. It seems the Bolton fighter's third defence of his WBA light-welterweight title has the ingredients for something special. When they came face to face for the first time here yesterday, there was no stage-managed rancour between two decent young fighters and much mutual respect. Khan was quick, though, to disabuse the gathering of the notion that this was a match between a puncher and a boxer. 'I am going out there to knock him out,' he said. 'My power is increasing by the day. I would just like to thank my sparring partners, especially those I have been knocking down.' Maidana comes to the fight with the reputation of a fierce kayo artist, having stopped 27 of his 30 opponents, "90 per cent of them in the first round", as Khan's trainer, Freddie Roach pointed out. But Roach expects that to work against the Argentinian, whom he predicts will run out of ideas when he fails to cope with Khan's speed.