PUNCH TO THE LIVER
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 13 Dec 2010
Las Vegas, NV:- The two short lefts to the liver delivered by Amir Khan against Marcos Maidana could have made Khan join a distinguished set of boxers who finished off their opponents with a liver shot.
Remember Bernard Hopkins? shot at Oscar de la Hoya back in 2004 that dropped the Golden Boy and in frustration he pounded the canvas because the extreme pain would not allow him to get back up?
And who can forget the one delivered by Ricky Hatton against Jose Luis Castillo in 2007 that ended their fight?
Amir Khan could have gotten his name mentioned alongside Hopkins and Hatton and a few others in boxing if Marcos Maidana was not in very good condition and was not able to recuperate from the liver shots he received from Khan in round 1 of their fight last Saturday night at the MGM.
But Maidana to his credit, was able to re-gain his wind and in the process almost turned the tables on Khan in round 10.
Khan?s liver shots and their effects where also reminiscent of the shots delivered by Miguel Cotto against Carlos Quintana in 2006. The only difference was Cotto was able to follow up the assault after Quintana stood up to score another knockdown. But just like Maidana, Quintana was able recover enough to walk back to his corner. Unlike Maidana however, he was not able to continue and his corner had to stop the fight giving Cotto the TKO win.
The liver, although a major organ in the human body, is not as well ?protected? as the heart and the lungs. The two are protected by the rib cage while the liver is directly just below the rib cage thus does not have the ribs acting as a ?shock absorber?. Therefore in boxing, it is a favorite target particularly of left handed boxers.
When a liver punch hits the target, the boxer hit invariably ?loses his legs and gasps for air, then in a delayed reaction will crumble to the canvas or roll over (just like Maidana did) because of the extreme pain. In most cases, the victim will stay that way for a few minutes thereby losing the fight via a knock-out.
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