By William Mackay: Amir Khan is looking to get an immediate rematch with IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson after the WBA ordered Peterson to give Khan the immediate rematch that he requested with his appeal to the sanctioning body.
Peterson reportedly has four to six months to give Khan the rematch, otherwise Peterson will be stripped of his title by the WBA. Khan wants the rematch with Peterson in April or May, and then he wants to move up to welterweight and challenger WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the end of 2012.
Khan told Sky Sports News “I want a neutral venue, neutral referee and neutral judges. I want to go out and win the fight and prove I deserved to win the first fight as well. It was a great fight and this time we want it to be fair. We don’t want a mystery man ringside messing around with whatever he was messing around with. I think everyone knows I won the fight. I have a 10 week training camp so I envisage the Peterson [fight] to be in April or May. But my ideal opponent is Floyd Mayweather. Hopefully I can fight him before the end of the year.”
Khan will be lucky just to get the Peterson rematch, let alone a fight with Mayweather. I have my doubts either will happen because Peterson could sign with Top Rank and be either used immediately for a fight with Manny Pacquiao in June or kept on the shelf like Timothy Bradley and saved until a Pacquiao fight in 2013.
There’s talk that Arum is or will be signing Peterson soon and if that happens the chances of a Khan-Peterson rematch will be dead in the water. Peterson would then likely vacate the WBA belt and possibly the IBF strap as well depending on the ruling by the IBF on January 18th. Needless to say, that would be a crushing blow for Khan because without him being able to get closure on the Peterson fight by fighting him and beating him in a rematch, there’s no way Mayweather will bother fighting Khan right now. Khan is too tainted by the Peterson loss and will need at least three good fights under his belt to undo the damage from that loss and all the complaining he did in the media.
No way would Mayweather fight Khan without him picking up some really important wins. Khan would likely have to knock of some top welterweights like Shane Mosley, Victor Ortiz, Andre Berto, Kell Brook or Mike Jones before Mayweather would fight him. Without the Peterson rematch, Khan will have to take a much harder road to get to Mayweather and there will be great danger in any of the fights for him unless Golden Boy Promotions decide to keep him away from those guys and just pick out Mosley and then make case that Khan now deserves Mayweather. I think it would be a mistake because Khan would be seen a con by a lot of boxing fans if he targets the 40-year-old Mosley only and not some of the younger more dangerous threats in the welterweight division.
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