By William Mackay: Newly crowned IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) was a real trooper about taking Amir Khan’s constant fouling last night without complaints in beating him by a 12 round split decision at the Convention center in Washington, DC.
Khan fouled practically nonstop from the 1st until the last round with his pulling down on Peterson’s head, wrapping him up in headlocks and giving him hard shoves to keep from getting inside to work.
The referee finally got tired of Khan’s constant pushing and took a point away in the 7th and 12th rounds, but allowed Khan to grab Peterson’s head all night and lean forward with it to get Peterson down to waist level.
Peterson later said this about the fouling: “I think they should have taken a point away for pulling my head down. He [Khan] was pushing a lot, but I didn’t mind it. I didn’t like the dipping down of the head.”
Khan grabbed Peterson’s head in every round and would lean forward to get Peterson’s head to move to the waist level. The objective often appeared to be a case of Khan stalling out Peterson’s inside attacks, because the referee would have to move in and break them up and Khan would get a fresh start from the outside. The process would often repeat itself with Peterson working his way to the inside and starting to land until Khan would grab him around the back of the head and start dipping his head down.
I’ve see Khan use this move constantly in past fights and he’s gotten away with and he shouldn’t. It’s just a way for Khan to avoid fighting on the inside and it’s not legal.
Khan played innocent after the fight, saying he grabbed Peterson constantly because he was coming in with his head low. But in each case, Khan would grab Peterson when they were fighting eye to eye, and would pull his head forward and lean on it like he was trying to ride his back. Peterson’s head wasn’t low until Khan would yank him out of position. Khan did this same move in stopping Zab Judah with a body shot in his last fight. While yanking down on Judah’s head with his left arm, Khan nailed Judah with his right. Highly illegal. Khan also was pulling down on the back of Marcos Maidana’s head all throughout their fight. It seems Khan can’t fight without using this illegal tactic over and over again.
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