Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson to take place in Washington, DC, says Schaefer

By Boxing News - 09/29/2011 - Comments

Image: Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson to take place in Washington, DC, says SchaeferBy William Mackay: The December 10th fight between IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s) and his No.1 IBF mandatory challenger 27-year-old Lamont Peterson (29-1-1, 15 KO’s) will be taking place in Washington, DC, according to boxing news from Yahoo and Golden Boy Promoter Richard Schaefer. The fight will take place in the United States capital, but the venue still hasn’t been selected as of yet.

This wasn’t Khan’s first choice for an opponent. He wanted to fight 35-year-old WBC light welterweight champion Erik Morales and WBO light welterweight champ Timothy Bradley, but neither of them showed any interest in fighting Khan at this time. Bradley is mired in legal problems and Morales is looking in another direction for his first title defense.

Peterson isn’t the biggest fight that Khan could have chosen in the division. A rematch between Khan and Marcos Maidana or Khan vs. Breidis Prescott, likely would have attracted a lot more interest and would give Khan a bigger payday than the light hitting Peterson. However, Prescott already knocked Khan out in one round, and Maidana had Khan staggering around the ring in his fight with Khan last December. Khan and his team opted to face the lesser puncher Peterson in what has to leave you scratching your head and wondering why. Maidana is the current WBA light welterweight regular champ, and it would have been a great fight.

Peterson was easily beaten by Timothy Bradley by a lopsided 12 round decision in December 2009. Peterson looked equally horrible in the early going against Victor Ortiz last year in December, getting knocked down twice by Ortiz. However, the judges gave Peterson a 10 round draw. HBO saw Ortiz winning the fight handily, as did I. It’s difficult to see what Khan gains from fighting Peterson other than trying to better the performance that Bradley put in against him. That’s going to be hard to do because Bradley completely dominated the fight, and I can’t see Khan winning in the same fashion against Peterson.

Khan has taken it easy since the Maidana fight, beating the a non-puncher Paul McCloskey last April and then defeating the fading Zab Judah for his IBF paper title in July.



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