By William Mackay: If you wanted a good laugh last night it came when former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-2, 1 KO’s) was being interviewed by HBO’s analyst Larry Merchant after Khan’s 12 round split decision loss to Lamont Peterson, in which Khan claimed that he was the more cleaner fighter on the night compared to Peterson. How Khan could have told Merchant this with a straight face is beyond me.

If you look at the fight, Khan was all over Peterson with holding onto the back of his neck like he was a Christmas wreath. Luckily for Khan, the kind referee didn’t take points away for this illegal hold because Khan used it all throughout the fight to try and stop Peterson when he fighting on the inside.

It’s no secret that Khan zero inside fighting skills and uses one of five methods to stop fighters from fighting the inside:

1. Grabbing their heads and pulling it forward while leaning down.
2. Pushing them hard to knock them back to the outside.
3. Clinching.
4. Grabbing one of their arms to prevent them from punching.
5. Putting them in a headlock.

The referee allowed Khan to get away with four of those tactics all night long but in the 12th, Khan was shoving Peterson around at will, trying to stop his attack and run out the clock. The referee did the right thing because you can’t shove your opponents across the ring when they try and fight you in close. It kind of reminds of a guy on my wrestling team in high school. He didn’t have much wrestling skills, so he would shove his opponents half way across the ring mat when they could get near him. He would lose points left and right, but he’d get away with a lot.

Khan has gotten away with shoving in his previous fights, in particular his bout with Marcos Maidana. Khan was used pushing/shoving to his advantage in rounds 10 through 12 after Khan was badly hurt. Referee Joe Cortez just stood by and allowed Khan to shove at will and this allowed Khan to keep Maidana on the outside much of the time so that he could survive the fight. Last night, referee Joe Cooper was on his job and made Khan pay for the shoving by taking points away in the 7th and 12th rounds. He could and should have taken a lot more points away from Khan for his habit of grabbing Peterson by the head and bending his head forward. That was so blatantly illegal.

After the fight, Khan said “I was the cleaner fighter in there. Every time he was coming into me, he kept putting his head low I tried but he kept putting his head low…The referee didn’t give me a chance. I couldn’t do anything he was so low. Every time I would try to keep him away from me, he would keep coming lower and lower. I tried but I was in DC. I was the cleaner fighter.”

What a joke. I got a kick out of Merchant playing replays of Khan’s fouls and it showed Peterson coming at him at the same head level as Khan and Khan just shoving him across the ring. There wasn’t a low head by Peterson, there was just Khan who couldn’t handle the pressure and was shoving and holding down on Peterson’s head like his life depended on it.