Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson on April 16th at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England – News

By Boxing News - 01/06/2011 - Comments

Image: Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson on April 16th at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England - NewsBy William Mackay: According to inside sources, World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight champion Amir Khan will be taking on #6 ranked World Boxing Association contender Lamont Peterson (28-1-1, 14 KO’s) on April 16th at the MEN Arena, in Manchester, England. The fight will be shown on Sky Sports. It’s a weird choice for Khan to make given that Peterson is ranked below #2 ranked Victor Ortiz, less popular than him and got what many people felt was a gift 10 round draw against Ortiz after getting knocked down twice in the fight.

I had Ortiz winning easily. However, Peterson fits into the type of opponent that Khan has been mostly fighting since his loss to knockout artist Breidis Prescott in 2008. Peterson has no power and is more of a finesse fighter that looks to set traps. He would be in deep trouble against knockout artist Marcos Maidana, and will probably lose to Khan unless Khan’s chin was affected permanently by his narrow 12 round decision win over Maidana in December. Khan was badly hurt in that fight in the 10th and spent the last three rounds holding and running for dear life while getting bombarded by shots from Maidana.

Peterson was easily beaten by Timothy Bradley in December 2009 in a fight where Peterson lost all 12 rounds and was staggered multiple times by Bradley. By fighting Peterson, Khan appears to be going after a safe opponent to pad his resume and keep from getting knocked out. Ortiz, with his big power, would be a huge risk for Khan, hence it’s probably why Khan opted not to take on the much harder punching Ortiz and went after another light puncher.

Peterson was bleeding and looked positively awful against Ortiz. It’s a great pick for Khan for him to pad his record with but it won’t do much to save him from the eventual beating he’ll be taking when he fights someone of substance like Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander or a rematch with Maidana or Prescott.



Comments are closed.