By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) only 10 days to appeal the World Boxing Association mandated rematch ordered for him against the beaten Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) if Peterson wants to try and get out of the rematch.
Peterson beat Khan last month by a 12 round split decision, but instead of accepting the loss, Khan and his promoters and Golden Boy Promotions put in an expensive appeal with the IBF and WBA to have the fight result overturned and an immediate rematch ordered. Khan and Golden Boy’s complaint was the referee did a poor job by taking two points away from Khan for his constant shoving.
They felt that shoving an opponent shouldn’t lead to having points taken off. They also had issues with the judges’ scoring, the scorecards themselves and with the mystery man who was seen talking with the WBA supervisor Michael Welsh during the fight. I personally think it’s a bunch of baloney because there’s nothing there that would indicate that Khan was treated unfairly or anything sinister going on. Khan simply got beat in the ring and that’s the important part. Khan pushed all night and couldn’t follow instructions, so he lost a couple of points.
If anyone who should have had a complaint on that night, I think its Peterson. The referee scored a knockdown in the fight in the 2nd round where Khan elbowed Peterson to the canvas. That knockdown cost Peterson the round.
Peterson has yet to say whether he’ll give Khan a rematch or not. He doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to. Peterson can always vacate the title and that’s not what Khan wants. He needs a rematch to try and prove that he belongs in the upper crust of the boxing elites with his buddy Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. If Khan can’t get the Peterson rematch, then it’s going to take him a lot longer to try and become one of the pay per view mega stars. I don’t think Khan will ever get to that point because to be a mega star, you have to be good enough to beat hard punchers and I think Khan’s chin is too brittle. He also won’t become a mega star with all the fouling he does. You can’t have a guy breaking the rules over and over again with shoving, and pulling down on his opponents heads. Khan might become more of a villain than a mega star unless he shapes up and learns to fight cleanly, not like an MMA fighter.
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