By John F. McKenna (McJack): Former WBA/IBF light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) is confident that when he enters the ring on May 19 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas to fight new WBA/IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) he will stop Lamont.

Khan and Peterson both have a score to settle after Lamont’s upset victory in Washington, D.C. last December.

Peterson shocked Khan and much of the boxing world when he pulled off his huge win over Amir. And while “Havoc” as Peterson is known to his fans fought a whale of a fight in picking up the win over Khan, the fight was full of controversy. For starters referee Joe Cooper took two points away from Amir on two separate occasions for “shoving”. Long time boxing observers were hard pressed to recall an instance where points were deducted from a fighter for “shoving”.

But the controversy did not end there. A “Mystery Man” later identified as Mustafa Ameen was seen at ringside passing slips of paper around and seemingly interfering with WBA scoring supervisor Michael Walsh. Both WBA and IBF officials acknowledged that Ameen had no business being at ringside. Ameen made matters worse in his efforts to quell the growing firestorm of controversy surrounding the fight by explaining that he was merely attempting to correct errors he had observed in the scorecards.

After the fight Ameen was seen on video in the corner of Peterson celebrating his victory.
Compounding matters even more was the disappearance of the master scorecard immediately after the fight. The scorecard reappeared two days later in pristine condition and not with the usual markings and smudges one would expect on a scorecard.

After all of that you cannot blame Khan for wanting to remove any alleged tampering with scorecards and judges. For that reason Amir is shooting for a stoppage this time around.

Apparently stung by the criticism that he had taken his eye off the ball, by focusing on potential future opponent WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s), Amir now claims that he is more focused on Peterson this time around. Khan has largely scaled back his media contact for his 2nd fight with Lamont.

Amir is now training along with his close friend WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) in Baguio City in the Philippines. Both Khan and Pacquiao utilize the high altitude in Baguio to build up stamina.