Lewis: Khan and Froch will win back their lost titles this year

By Boxing News - 03/18/2012 - Comments

Image: Lewis: Khan and Froch will win back their lost titles this yearBy Sean McDaniel: Former heavyweight world champion and HBO analyst Lennox Lewis sees Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) and Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) winning back their lost titles. Lewis doesn’t give a time line for when that’s going to happen, but he believes just the same that both fighters will be able to snatch back their titles. Froch was beaten decisively by WBA World super middleweight champion Andre Ward last December, whereas Khan was defeated by Lamont Peterson by a controversial 12 round split decision last December.

Lewis told the Daily Express “I think we’ve got some great fighters in Britain who will do well this year, and I believe both Amir Khan and Carl Froch will win back their world titles…Khan has got to do some traveling to America to face Lamont Peterson, but he can do it. He has enormous talent and although he had trouble in the first fight, I expect him to win this time.”

Khan has a much better chance of winning back his titles than Froch does simply because Froch isn’t on Ward’s radar screen right now due to the one-sided nature of their loss. At best, Froch would be lucky if he can get a fight against Ward in 2013. If he beats Bute, then it’ll certainly be a possibility in 2012, but I’m not so certain Froch would even be open to that idea because it’s a bad style match-up for him. Froch would likely try and get a fight against Mikkel Kessler rather than Ward if he can get past Bute on May 26th.

Khan has a chance of beating Peterson in their rematch on May 19th, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on that happening. Khan says he won’t be shoving Peterson like he did in the first fight because he doesn’t want to give the referee any excuses he might need to penalize Khan like in the first fight when Khan lost two points for failing to stop shoving Peterson after repeatedly being warned to stop by the referee. Khan might be a lot less effective if he’s not shoving and pulling down on Peterson’s neck all night long like he did last time. Some boxing fans feel without the shoving and pulling down on Peterson’s neck fouls that Khan used, he might have been knocked out by Peterson. So there’s a big question mark about whether Khan can beat Peterson this time around.



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