By Jason Kim: Former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-3, 23 KO’s) will be hoping to turn his sagging career around this Saturday night against journeyman Marcus McGee (22-16, 11 KO’s) in an eight round bout at the Grand Miyan, Nuevo Vallarta, in Nayarit, Mexico. Peter, 28, has lost his last two fights against Vitali Klitschko and recetnly against Eddie Chambers. In the Chambers fight, Peter made the mistake of coming into the fight at a career high of 265, an incredible number for such and important fight.
The added weight slowed Peter down significantly, just enough for Chambers to pull out a close 10 round majority decision in March. Despite being beaten in back to back fights, Peter is still ranked at number #6 in the International Boxing Federation. However, he can ill afford to be beaten again any time soon, so hopefully Peter comes in shape against the 38-year-old McGee this Saturday night.
Whether Peter comes in shape or not, he’s probably good enough to take McGee out early in the fight. McGee has never beaten a top tier fighter and has been beaten three out of his last fights, losing to Odlanier Solis, David Rodriguez and Danny Williams.
Peter lost his WBC heavyweight title to Vitali Klitschko in an eighth round stoppage in October 2008. Peter was never able to get inside Vitali’s long reach and was battered round after round by the tall 6’7” Klitschko until Peter quit on his stool following the 8th round. Peter won the WBC title in the previous to this, beating Oleg Maskaev by a 6th round stoppage in March 2008.
Khan Wants to Fight In America
Newly crowned World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (21-1, 15 KO’s) wants to fight his next fight in the United States where he trains in Los Angeles at the Wild Card gym with trainer Freddie Roach. Fighting in the U.S. may be easier said than done for Khan, because his promoter is Frank Warren and it’s unclear whether he would be interested in having his fighter fight in the U.S. away from Khan’s loyal British boxing fans. In the UK, Khan is well known and well liked.
However, in the U.S., Khan is still an obscure fighter for casual boxing fans of the sport, many of whom have never heard of Khan. He’s hoping that he can change all that by going after a big name in the U.S. The names Khan could possibly be going after are Timothy Bradley, the WBO light welterweight champion, Juan Urango, Kendall Holt and Marcos Maidana.
However, the next likely bout for Khan will be his WBA mandatory challenger Dimitri Salita. That fight likely won’t do much in attracting new fans for Khan, so he might as well fight that one in the UK. However, a fight against Bradley or better yet Maidana, would be the perfect fight to show to American audiences.
U.S. boxing fans prefer to see a lot of action, and a fight with Maidana would almost guarantee that to happen, even if Khan opts to move constantly for 12 rounds and try to win fighting on the move. If he hopes to win fans, it would be preferable that Khan trade shots with whoever he decides on fighting next.
Khan needs to fight in a little big more of an entertaining way than he did against Kotelnik last weekend, because that fight ended up very dull to watch because of Khan’s constant running around the ring.
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