By William Mackay: I think Golden Boy Promotions could be putting Amir Khan’s once promising career in terrible jeopardy by allowing him to fight Lamont Peterson again after Khan’s loss last night to the Washington, DC based fighter. Khan was beaten by a 12 round split decision and struggled with Peterson’s body attack and inside game.

While some boxing fans thought Khan did just enough to win the fight, if you take away his bogus 1st round knockdown that he was given credit for, he clearly deserved to lose last night.

A rematch between Khan and Peterson could take place in March of 2012 if Khan has his way. He told BBC Sport, “We want a rematch, maybe in Vegas, on March 31st.”

I think Khan and his promoters from Golden Boy need to take their lumps and move on to a softer opponent who doesn’t have the same kind of boxing skills, tenacity or inside fighting ability that Peterson has. In other words, Khan needs to go back to fighting the same kinds of guys he’s been facing since struggling with Marcos Maidana. Khan needs more guys like Paul McCloskey and Zab Judah for him to win without risk and move forward for an eventual big payday fight against Floyd Mayweather In 2012 or 2013.

It’s kind of a joke now to think of Khan fighting Mayweather after this loss, but believe me Golden Boy will still be pushing for this fight next year with all their might and will be hoping boxing fans have a short memory. But if you put Khan back in with Peterson, we could see Khan get exposed again and then it definitely won’t be possible for Khan to be matched against Mayweather in 2012 or 2013. He would be in need of rebuilding and the fight would be un-sellable.

You got to figure that if Peterson does face Khan again in a fight in early 2012, Golden Boy will have it set up to Khan’s liking with the ring size being huge so that he can run around and stall out the time. And also we could see a Khan-friendly referee like Joe Cortez trotted out, which would make it almost impossible for Peterson to work on the inside without Cortez jumping in and separating him from Khan to get the action restarted at center ring.

Khan beats Peterson 100 out of 100 times with Cortez as the referee. Unless Peterson is assertive about the fight contract, he could find himself at a huge disadvantage against Khan even before the rematch. However, I still think the fight is a dumb move for Golden Boy because it’s too risky given what their intentions are for Khan. They want him to be boxing’s no. 1 pound for pound fighter, and Peterson would have a chance of flushing those dreams down the toilet by beating Khan in a rematch or giving him so many problems that Khan wins a controversial decision.

I imagine Golden Boy will take whatever kind of win they can get for Khan in a rematch with Peterson and then move on as if the win was conclusive. There won’t be a rubber match, believe me. A Khan win in the next fight would be the last time Khan and Peterson ever fight. Khan would then be moved on and positioned as quickly as possible for a cash out fight with Mayweather.