Khan claims integrity of boxing at stake over Peterson controversy

By Boxing News - 01/26/2012 - Comments

Image: Khan claims integrity of boxing at stake over Peterson controversyBy John F. McKenna (McJack): Former WBA/IBF light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) insists that the integrity of boxing is at stake over the poor handling of his fight with new light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s).

The initial controversy that developed in the Khan – Peterson match was when referee Joe Cooper took the unusual step of deducting a point from Amir on two separate occasions during the fight. Cooper deducted the points from Khan for pushing off. Longtime boxing observers were hard pressed to remember another instance in which points were deducted by the referee for pushing off on an opponent.

Khan said in the post fight interview that he felt as though he was fighting two opponents, Peterson and referee Cooper. Khan has stated since the December fight that Peterson came in with his head down numerous times and he had no alternative but to push back on him to avoid being head butted.

Adding to the controversy was the disappearance of the master score card immediately following the fight. The scorecard re appeared a couple of days later in pristine condition leading Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer to suspect that it may have been tampered with.

Adding fuel to the irregularities in the fight was the presence of a “Mystery Man” in the fight who was seen on video interfering with WBA scoring supervisor Michael Welsh.

Initially it was thought that the “Mystery Man” was an IBF official, but the IBF later identified him as Mustafa Ameen and acknowledged that he was not one of their employees.

Ameen, in an effort to quell the brewing firestorm over the controversy in the fight, allegedly said that he was not doing anything wrong and that he was only at ringside pointing out errors in the scorecards. Of course those comments merely made matters worse since Mustafa was not supposed to be anywhere near Welsh or the judges.
To compound matters Ameen is seen in the video after the fight celebrating in Lamont Peterson’s corner.

Schaefer filed an appeal with the IBF in December over the numerous irregularities in the fight. The appeal however was withdrawn when it was revealed that the key players involved, referee Cooper and scoring supervisor Welsh would not be present at the hearing.

The WBA has ruled that Peterson must give Khan a rematch. After initially stating in a post fight interview that he would give Amir a rematch, Lamont filed an appeal with the WBA in hopes of having it’s ruling overturned. It is unclear at this point whether Khan and Peterson will fight again any time soon.



Comments are closed.