By William Mackay: Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) says he’s going to avoid pushing off on IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) in their rematch on May 19th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Khan wants to avoid losing any more points for this kind of foul and he doesn’t trust the referee that works the fight given that he’ll have no doubt seen Khan’s last fight against Peterson in Washington, DC.

Khan told Sky Sports Ringside “I’m not even going to give [the referee] a chance to [take points off] with the pushing and stuff; I’m just not going to do that and we are probably just going to hit the angles instead and we’ll have a neutral referee.”

Is it possible for Khan to avoid shoving in the heat of battle? Probably not. Khan doesn’t have any inside skills and his trainer Freddie Roach isn’t noted for training guys that are good at fighting on the inside. Roach is better at training fighters to hit and move. That seems to be what Roach is good at.

This whole bit about Khan working the angles sounds a lot like a bunch of gibberish and wishful thinking. It’s like a football coach describing his defensive line by saying they’re going to be an attacking defense, and then they go out and have running backs shooting through holes for long touchdown runs.

Khan is going to be what he’s been in the past – a hit, hold, pull and run fighter. He likes to hit and then either run or pull down on his opponent’s head. When he’s not doing that, Khan likes to shove his opponents. The other referees that worked his previous 27 fights before his last one, let Khan use this shoving foul without warnings or taking points away. It took a brave referee in Joe Cooper to finally say ‘enough of this,’ and take points away from Khan. He gave Khan plenty of warnings before he did eventually take off points, but Khan couldn’t learn and adapt.

Instead, he just kept shoving Peterson until he was docked a point. Still not learning, Khan was docked a second point. So by Khan saying he won’t shove Peterson in the rematch, I just don’t buy it. Shoving is a huge part of his game and you don’t just take that away overnight, especially when your trainer has made minimal at best chances to your game.