By William Mackay: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan isn’t worried about anything that IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson can bring to their May 19th rematch in terms of skills, because Khan says he’s already seen everything that Peterson has in his tool kit and he’s not worried about him bringing anything new this time.

Khan said to RingTV “He can bring whatever he wants to the table. Lamont Peterson has shown me everything, his punching power, his speed, his movement, his pressure. I know exactly what to expect. I’d be silly to make the same mistakes in the second fight.”

It looks like Khan feels he’s got Peterson all figured out and sees it as a win already in his mind. Khan never did adapt to the skills that Peterson showed in their December fight, and that makes it kind of weird that Khan is talking as if he can handle Peterson no problem in the rematch. That’s like Joe Frazier writing off George Foreman for their rematch after having been blasted out by him in their first fight.

Khan never figured Peterson out last time and resorted to shoving, pulling down on his head and putting him in headlocks. That was basically Khan’s defense and those were fouls. The shoving eventually cost Khan two points and yet he continued to shove. I’d say that Khan never figured out how to deal with what Peterson brought to the table, and for him to talk about how he’s already shown him everything, it sounds silly. Khan needs to prove that he can handle what Peterson is bringing before he can talk about it.

Khan probably won’t try and fight Peterson voluntarily at first. I expect him to do a lot of running, but Khan is one of those fighters that get excited when they get hit and immediately want to retaliate with his own shots. That’s going to turn the fight into the war that Peterson is looking for at least initially. When Khan realizes that he’s unequipped for this kind of fighting, he’ll revert to form by going back to his shoving, pulling down on the head and putting him in headlocks to try and survive. It’ll be as if he’s daring the referee to do anything about it, and I expect the referee to do zero. I’m not sure who the referee is but my guess it’s someone that will let Khan shove, hold and put Peterson in as many headlocks as needed.