By Scott Gilfoid: Things are slowly turning around for Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s). On Thursday, the World Boxing Association reportedly ordered an immediate rematch between Khan and IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) in response to an expensive appeal that Khan’s promoters Golden Boy Promotions filed with the WBA and IBF after Khan was beaten by Peterson on December 10th by a 12 round split decision in Washington, DC.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO, Richard Schaefer, told RingTV “I just received, a half an hour ago, a letter from the WA on their official decision that they are going to order an immediate rematch. I think that its the fight decision and I hope that we can get the rematch done.”

Golden Boy asked for the appeal because of what they felt were scoring issues, a referee that they felt unfairly deducted points from Khan for shoving, and scoring problems. They also took issue with the “Mystery man,” Mustafa Ameen, who was seen sitting and chatting with the WBA supervisor Michael Welsh during parts of the Khan-Peterson fight.

They felt that taken as a whole, there was enough suspect problems that the fight should be overturned with the results changed to ‘No decision” and Khan given his IBF & WBA titles back, as well an immediate rematch ordered. Golden Boy and Khan didn’t get the no contest, but they have received the immediate rematch orders for Peterson.

The International Boxing Federation will be meeting next week to decide the fate of the Khan appeal on January 18th. There’s a chance that they’ll also order an immediate rematch as well.
So how does this affect Peterson? Probably not a whole lot; He only has two options available to him: a possible fight with Manny Pacquiao, which probably won’t happen, and the Khan rematch.

Peterson was always going to have to come back to fight Khan anyway, and all the appeal did was force what was going to happen anyway with all likelihood. Golden Boy wasted their money, Khan got a bad name, and he’s still not the champion. I can’t think of a stupider thing to do than to file an appeal on the back of that loss. I wonder who dreamed up the idea for that one.

Khan looked good in the first two rounds of the fight, showing incredible hand speed, combinations and foot work. However, after the 3rd, Khan started to fall apart under the pressure from Peterson and couldn’t handle his inside attacks. Khan soon after started shoving Peterson constantly, pulling down on his head every chance he could get and putting him in headlocks that often turned Peterson’s face a bright red from the pressure that Khan was using around his throat with his arm.

The referee asked Khan to stop pushing Peterson, but Khan was having none of it. He just kept shoving over and over again until he lost a point in the 7th round from the frustrated referee. The point deduction didn’t change a thing with Khan, as he kept shoving Peterson around the ring like an MMA fighter rather than a boxer.

There’s pushing that it’s allowable but Khan was taking it to another level and using the pushing as an actual tool instead of a rare thing. Khan shoved in place of an inside game and the referee could see what Khan was doing and wasn’t going to turn a blind eye to the blatant fouling from Khan. After more warnings, the referee took a second point off from Khan in the 12th round for more pushing.

Did that stop Khan from pushing? Nope! He went right back to it and continued to push until the final bell. The reminded me of the Showtime bout between Abner Mares and Joseph Abeko where the referee kept warning Mares to stop throwing low, but the warnings had no effect on changing Mares’ behavior. He went right on fouling until the end of the fight. The same with Khan; He continued to shove until the end of the fight and was the loser.