By William Mackay: Freddie Roach, Amir Khan’s trainer, says they’ve made some small changes to Khan’s game for their May 19th rematch with IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson. Small changes may not be enough for Khan to win this fight, however, because he was really out of his depth from Peterson’s pressure last December.

Roach said this as quoted by Livefight: “We are going to make some new moves. We will make small adjustments with Khan, but they will make a big difference. [Putting him with Pacquiao during training camp] really helps him prepare mentally, because if he can do it with Pacquiao, then he can with Lamont Peterson.”

It’s hard to know what precisely Roach means when he says “He can do it with Pacquiao,” because it can’t be sparring. That wouldn’t help Khan in a rematch with Peterson, because the two fighters are completely different. Pacquiao is a southpaw that likes to jump in and out and throw a lot of speedy shots, whereas Peterson is a pressure fighter that likes to work on the inside.

If Khan does spar with Pacquiao, it’s not going to help him one bit figure out what to do when he’s put in the ring against Peterson. It’s like apples and oranges. He might as well have Khan to a baseball park and have his hand at batting practice because it’s the equivalent of Khan sparring with Pacquiao to prepare him for Peterson. From what I’ve heard, Pacquiao wants Khan to come over early to the Philippines for Pacquiao’s pre-training camp training with his strength coach Alex Ariza. The two fighters will do a lot of running and other exercises. Running with Pacquiao is good for Khan’s conditioning but that’s not going to help him beat Peterson.

I’m curious to know what specific changes Roach is talking about for Khan to beat Peterson.

Here’s the changes that Roach has made to Khan’s game for the Peterson rematch:

* More running

* More holding

* Strategic shoving

* Throwing uppercuts on the inside

* More headlocks and pulling down on the head

* Throwing quick flurries followed by running

Of all the things that Roach is going to have Khan do in the rematch, I doubt that Roach will have Khan fighting Peterson more in one on one.