By John F. McKenna (McJack): Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) freely acknowledges that one of the reasons he enjoys training in the Philippines is because of the close friendship he has built up with World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s). Khan and “Pacman” frequently train together while preparing for fights. Both fighters are trained by five time trainer of the year Freddie Roach.

Although they are training together and have sparred together in the past, there will be no sparring between the two this time. Presently both Khan and Pacquiao are taking advantage of the high altitude that Baguio City provides. High altitude training has become a staple for many fighters who use it to build stamina for upcoming fights.

But the main reason Amir likes training in the Philippines is that he enjoys training with Pacquiao. Khan admittedly looks up to Pacquiao and says that he is inspired by the Filipino icon. Khan further states that he wants to accomplish at least some of the things that Manny has in the ring.

Khan is in training for an upcoming fight at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas on May 19 with WBA/IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s). Khan is hopeful that he will win back the titles that Peterson took from him in a highly controversial decision in Washington, D.C. last December.

In the first fight referee Joe Cooper took the unusual step of deducting a point on two separate occasions from Khan for shoving. It was Amir’s contention however that he was forced to shove Lamont because he was coming in on him with his head low. The two points deducted from Peterson were the difference between winning and losing the fight. Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer alleged that there was some “home cooking” involved in the fight because it was held in Paterson’s home town of Washington, D.C.

Immediately after losing the fight Khan launched a campaign to land a rematch with Peterson. Khan produced video of a “mystery man” later identified as Mustafa Ameen who was seen passing out slips of paper and interfering with the WBA scoring supervisor. The fact that Ameen had no affiliation with either the IBF or the WBA and had no business being at ringside merely added fuel to the controversy surrounding the fight. Ameen was also seen on the same video celebrating in Lamont’s corner after his victory.

Although Khan received a great deal of criticism for his campaign to land another fight with Peterson, the reality is that if he had not done so, the probability is that he would not have gotten the rematch.