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Khan wins a unanimous but close decision Amir Khan   (24-1, 17 KOs) of England successfully defended his world junior-welterweight title with a close but unanimous decision over   Marcos Maidana   (29-2, 27 KOs) of Argentina on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas . Lance Pugmire of The Times was ringside and gave a round-by-round account. Here it is (scoring is unofficial): Round 1:   Maidana blows off the touching of the gloves to throw a right at Khan. Some big early power by Maidana. Nice response of power by Khan, good rights. Khan's speed is obvious. Good right by Maidana. Big flurry by Khan. Khan ducks an attack. Big jabs and left body blow drops Maidana. He's back up but Khan goes for kill with wicked right landing at bell.   Khan wins round, 10-8 . Round 2:   Big flurry by Khan. Maidana accepts hard right to face. He can't keep up. Solid combos by Khan to head and body. Jab, jab, jab. Big right by Khan backs up Maidana. Good right by K...

Amir Khan: Cricket 'spot-fixing' claims have set Pakistan back as a country 02.09.10 Boxer Amir Khan   said today the   Pakistan   cricket scandal has heaped more misery on an already devastated nation. The sports star, who travelled to his parents' homeland to help those affected by the flooding, branded the damaging allegations "upsetting", and said the controversy had set the country back even further. "It's upsetting. I don't know the whole truth behind it but it does just put Pakistan behind a little bit," he told GMTV. "These floods have put Pakistan behind probably about 10 years or more and now to hear that ... a lot of the people in Pakistan look up to the cricket players and now when you hear that about the cricket players ... it does make their emotions quite sad, so really it does put them behind a little bit." Khan, 23, is visiting the country with the charity   Oxfam   which hopes to reach millions of Pakistanis wit...

  Ten minutes with a legend: Jon Wilks discusses the recent Laureus Sports Awards with the current WBA world light welterweight champion   Are you feeling confident about your form at the moment? I’m very confident. I’ve just signed a deal with [leading boxing promoter] Golden Boy Promotions and I want to impress them, so I’m training twice as hard. That’s the same promoter as Manny Pacquiao. Are you going to be sparring with him? I’ll be doing a few things with Manny, but in more of a current fighting style. I’ve sparred against him before. I did really well and my trainer was quite impressed. Manny came up and said I was the fastest guy he’d ever faced at the time. Are you surprised he wasn’t a contender for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award? I’m very surprised. He’s had some big fights. I think with boxing, only very few people get enough publicity. Manny’s huge and he’s done so much for the game, but he’s not got that thing, that image that means he’s goin...

Juan Manuel Márquez earned a unanimous points decision over Juan Diaz in Las Vegas to retain his World Boxing Association and World Boxing Organisation lightweight titles. His emphatic victory was watched at ringside by Amir Khan who wasted no time in naming the 36-year-old Mexican as the man he would most like to face in his next scheduled fight on Dec 11 in either Manchester or London . Márquez scored 116-112, 118-110 and 117-111 with the judges on Saturday night. Memories of Márquez, with a record of 37 knockouts in his 57 fights, being dominated by the much bigger Floyd Mayweather Jr in September 2009 eased away as Diaz was picked apart. Khan said: “Márquez looked strong and sharp. I still want to fight him. He’s a legend. I know people think I’m stupid to fight someone with so much experience, but I want tough fights against big names. I am now relying on Golden Boy Promotions to make this fight for December.” Apart from Marquez, there are three other names in the reckoning...