By William Mackay: Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) feels he deserves a rematch after he was beaten by Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision last month on December 10th. Khan thinks he was judged unfairly and penalized needlessly on two occasions for him pushing off on Peterson to escape pressure.

The thing is Peterson was doing what he was supposed to be doing by pressuring and trying to land shots on the inside. Khan, on the other hand, was pushing and pulling down on his head in order to escape that pressure. So he deserved to have points taken off and should have had even more points taken away for the head pulling.

The fight result is now under appeal and the two sanctioning bodies – the IBF and WBA – should be giving their verdict later this month if they’ll be overturning the results and/or mandating that an immediate rematch is required. But I don’t see why Peterson needs to give Khan a rematch. Khan never gave his opponents Marcos Maidana, Breidis Prescott and Paul McCloskey rematches after they asked him. Since not giving rematches is Khan’s pattern, do you think he would have given Peterson a rematch if he beat him narrowly?

If you think that then you are very naïve because that’s not Khan’s pattern. He barely beat Maidana, yet ignored giving him a rematch. Khan was knocked out in one round by Prescott, but gave up on a rematch when he saw someone else beat him. I doubt that Khan would have fought Prescott again anyway, but his losses to Kevin Mitchell and Miguel Vazquez gave Khan all the cover he needed not to fight Prescott again.

I don’t think Peterson should waste his time with Khan in a rematch unless the fight takes place in Washington, DC and Joe Cooper is the referee again. That’s only fair because if the fight takes place in a so-called neutral venue you can bet a referee that will be lying off and letting Khan foul to his heart’s content will be working the fight. It’s almost a given, and that’s a bad thing for Peterson because he doesn’t foul like Khan.