By William Mackay: If you saw Amir Khan lose to Lamont Peterson last December, you’ll have noticed a lot of fouling from Khan in trying to escape the constant pressure from Peterson. The fouling that Khan used was in the form of shoving, which he quite frequently, pulling down on the back of Peterson’s head to force him forward into a bent over position, and putting him in headlocks. The headlocks probably shouldn’t be considered a foul but it can be when you’re putting your opponent in frequent headlocks.

Khan ended up losing two points for his shoving of Peterson when he failed to heed the advice of referee Joe Cooper. Even after Khan had two points taken off for shoving, he continued to shove until the fight was over. That tells that it was something that Khan simply couldn’t make adjustments to. When a referee is telling you to stop fouling and is taking off points for it, and yet you still can’t stop using this particular foul. It seemed like Khan had no answers for Peterson’s inside fighting ability and pressure, and could only come up with shoving and pulling down on his head.

In the rematch, Khan will have to come up with some other ideas unless he’s okay with risking more points being taken off. However, it’s a different referee working the fight, a different venue, so maybe Khan will be allowed to use the shoving, pulling down on Peterson’s head and putting him in headlocks fouls. Who knows? I’m hoping that the referee does his job and keeps Khan from fouling Peterson, but I don’t think he will. I believe Khan will foul just as much as he did last time, possibly even more because Peterson will be putting a lot more pressure on Khan earlier in the fight instead of waiting until the fourth round to start going after him. I think Khan can’t fight without shoving and using those other fouls. It’s too bad. If the referee does his job, then we’ll have a good fight. But if Khan is allowed to get away with constant fouling to escape from Peterson’s inside pressure, then it’ll be sad because Peterson will be stopping from fighting by non-boxing moves.