By Hector Gonzalez: This article is not about Khan bashing. This article is about putting boxing into proper perspective. This article is about resisting the hype being put up by Golden Boy, and furthermore about why boxing needs a champion like Lamont Peterson. If there is a rematch, and you are considering putting money on Khan on the basis that he was robbed in their first bout, I would suggest that you look closer…. Khan does not have the skills to beat Peterson.

First and foremost, if Peterson and Khan were to rematch Khan would lose. After watching the Peterson/Khan bout for the 5th time, it’s clear to me, and many others; including insiders that Khan will loss even more convincingly then the first fight.

I want to point out that very few boxing insiders are calling the decision in favor of Peterson a robbery- the Skysports commentators all agreed that Khan lost the bout- non of them mentioned point deductions or if his dirty tactics were actually ‘fouls’ or not, simply put in their words, Peterson was the stronger and better fighter. Danny Garcia, Robert Guerrero, Floyd Mayweather Sr. all went public saying that Peterson was the true winner. After watching the fight for the first time, I felt that the fight could have gone either way, after watching it a 5th time, it’s clear that Peterson won, and more importantly that if a rematch were to happen, he has the tools to seriously hurt khan.

My scorecard is at 114- 111 in favor of Peterson, this includes the 1st round knockdown as well as the two point deductions. If we were to eliminate the point deductions against khan, the score would still be 114-113 declaring Peterson the winner. I had Peterson winning rounds, 3,4,5,6,7,8,10 with Khan winning rounds 1,2,9,11, and 12 being a tie. Regardless of what ever the score might have been, it’s no longer about that. It’s about who is in fact the better fighter, who has the tools to beat the other guy.

After watching the fight for the 5th time I sat and took some notes, these are some of the weaknesses I found in Khan’s game. Khan is susceptible to a strong left hook counter, he got caught flush with it in round 2 right before the second slip. Peterson’s right cross was working for him, it landed flush for him practically in almost every round. Khan does not have an answer for the left body haymakers—none what so ever. At 32 seconds of third 3rd round, Peterson landed a crisp right to the body that stumbled Khan- there on after the holding and the pushing begins. It appears that Peterson’s confidence arose to the point that he no longer had any respect for Khan’s power whatsoever, after that point Peterson walked through everything that Khan had to offer. If Peterson’s confidence could be established from the 1st round, Peterson could potentially dictate the whole fight. Might you that rounds 1 and 2 where the only rounds where Khan was actually moving forward, all other rounds he was backing up and running. Khan was also knocked out by Prescott by rushing forward in the first round.

If we were to look at it as a chess game and we were to observe which fighter was dictating the pace of the fight, then the clear winner would be Peterson. Khan’s running and flushes appeared to be more of a way to keep Peterson off of him as oppose to actual intentions of hurting Peterson. Point being that Khan’s weaknesses have fully been exposed, in other words, it appears to me as an observer that Peterson has a better insight as to how to beat Khan as oppose to Khan having a better insight as to how to beat Peterson. In other words, Peterson showed very little weakness while Khan showed a lot of weaknesses.

Many of us fans who really had no investment in Lamont Peterson are now cheering for him. Boxing needs a champion like Lamont Peterson- The guy that over came the odds, the quite humble type. Golden Boy needs to understand that the fan of today does not respond well to a fighter with a big mouth like Khan. Boxing needs a 99% percent’r beating a 1% percent’r. And like Larry Merchant says during the fight, Lamont Peterson is fighting for the 99%.