By William Mackay: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan figures his loss to Lamont Peterson last weekend threw off his schedule for a mega fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. by only one year.
Instead of moving up to the welterweight division now after his loss to Lamont Peterson last weekend, Khan will be facing Peterson in a rematch in what Khan hopes will take place on March 31st at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Khan wants to move up in weight after the rematch.
Khan told the BBC Sport “Instead of taking the fight with Mayweather in 2012, 2013 is going to be perfect. This is only going to make me more mature, and make me a better fighter. It’s perfect, everything happens for a reason.”
A couple of things here: Khan is really making some huge assumptions about being able to get past Peterson in a rematch, as well as Mayweather, who isn’t an easy fighter to get a fight with, will agree to fight Khan in 2013. Peterson will no doubt have studied his win over Khan and will be that much better in a rematch.
Khan may be no better than he was last Saturday, and I seriously doubt Khan will have learned how to fight on the inside by March 31st. It takes years to learn how to fight in close, and Khan is like a child in close. He won’t be any better in a rematch in that area.
The only difference I can see in the rematch is Khan will probably be able to get away with his fouling all night long because you can imagine Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for Khan, will make sure a more laid back referee is working the Khan-Peterson II fight instead of someone that will take points away from Khan for shoving, holding & hitting, using headlocks and pulling down on Peterson’s head.
Khan’s tendency to use these kinds of fouls are too ingrained in his fighting style and he’s not going to stop using any of them in the rematch. But Khan won’t be penalized for any of them, because its highly likely that the referee that gets selected for the fight will be one that will keep a hands off approach to calling fouls.
Khan really needs more than a year of facing likely hand-picked opponents before he’s given a shot at Mayweather. Khan needs like three solid years of nothing but quality opposition before he should be given a shot at Mayweather. There are so many more deserving fighters than this guy. You can’t have Khan put in with Mayweather and have Khan fouling him all night long in a real stinker of a fight.
Comments are closed.