By William Mackay: It looks as if Amir Khan and his promoter Golden Boy Promotions’ appeal to the WBA to have them give back Khan’s Super light welterweight World Boxing Association title has paid off, as the WBA reportedly went ahead and gave Khan back his strap. He’ll now have this belt up for grabs for his May 19th rematch with IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Khan said this on his twitter page “Great news, WBA still have me as WBA Super Champion! I will be putting that title on the line on May 19th against Peterson.”

So Peterson gets stripped of his WBA Super light welterweight title despite having beaten Khan. What’s unclear is whether the WBA sees Khan’s December 17th loss to Peterson as a no contest or a loss for Peterson? It seems rather confusing and more than a little disappointing that Peterson would lose his title after Khan and his promoters file an expensive appeal. Hopefully, this doesn’t become a regular thing with Khan losing fights and then putting in appeals and then having his title given back to him over and over again. It would make a real joke out of the sport to see this kind of thing. As far as I can tell, Khan deserved to lose to Peterson. He ran move of the fight from the 4th round on, constantly shoved and pulled down on Peterson’s head when he would come in close to try and work inside. Eventually Khan was docked two points for the shoving off, which he had been given warnings to stop. I don’t see anything there that would lead to him getting his title back. As far as the mystery man sitting at the judges’ table, he didn’t change the outcome of the fight. I see no reason to have Peterson’s title taken away from him for the Mystery man. And the scorecards weren’t altered other than one judge fixing a mistake on his scorecard. There’s just nothing there. If I’m Peterson I don’t think I would be too happy about losing my title. I know it’s just a strap and he’s already got the IBF title, but I wouldn’t be happy about this and I would be tempted to call off the fight and go in another direction.

I just wonder if Khan is going to be allowed to shove, pull down on Peterson’s head and put him in head locks without being penalized in the rematch? That would be my worry if I was Peterson and his management team. The fight is supposedly in a neutral venue but if a referee is going to be letting Khan get away with fouling, then what’s the point of making the fight? They already took his WBA title away and gave it back to Khan. What’s the point in having the rematch?