By William Mackay: Earlier today it was announced that Amir Khan had finally landed a rematch against IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson after two months and a lot of wasted money on appeals to the WBA and IBF.
Khan and Peterson will battle it out in neutral venue on May 19th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although the venue is going to be neutral, the fight itself may depend entirely on whether Khan can get away with fouling.
In his fight with Peterson last December, the referee Joe Cooper let Khan get away with a ton of holding around the head and headlocks. However, he drew the line when it came to Khan’s shoving of Peterson when was trying to get in close.
The rematch may hinge on whether the referee that is selected for this fight will allow Khan to get away with his four most common fouling techniques:
• Holding and hitting
• Pulling down on his opponent’s head
• Shoving
• Headlocks
If you look at Khan’s fight with Peterson, you’ll notice that Khan used all four of those fouls. The holding and hitting was a rare foul in the fight, but the shoving, headlocks and pulling down on Peterson’s head was used frequently by Khan and it seemed to really help him escape the inside pressure from Peterson.
I lost count of all the times that Peterson would chase Khan down only to have him get shoved to the outside by Khan or get grabbed around the neck and pulled forward until Peterson was in the bent over position.
Khan would then lean down on him hard to keep Peterson trapped until the referee would pull Khan off of him. If Khan is allowed to use these fouling techniques in the rematch then I think Peterson will have a really tough time winning a decision because he won’t be allowed to work. Khan will no doubt be hitting and moving constantly, but he won’t have to worry about Peterson fouling him with shoving or the use of other fouls. But Peterson may have a really hard time if a referee is picked out that allows Khan to do whatever he pleases in the rematch.
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