By William Mackay: Amir Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach wants Khan to stay off the ropes and fight in the center of the ring against IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson on May 19th. Roach figures Khan will be able to easily handle Peterson as long as he stays in the center of the ring with room to maneuver around. Roach also wants Khan to throw more uppercuts in the rematch compared to the first fight.

Here’s the things: If Khan fights the way Roach wants him to, he’ll end up like Jorge Linares did in his losses to Sergio Thompson and Antonio DeMarco. In other words, if Khan tries to actually fight Peterson instead of running, shoving, pulling down on his head or covering up on the ropes in a near fetal position, he’ll get blasted out by Peterson. I took a look at how Khan was doing in the early part of the fight when he actually was fighting in the center of the ring against Peterson, and he wasn’t doing well.

Indeed, Khan was getting clobbered left and right when he was in the center of the ring. He started running around the ring and fighting off the ropes simply because he was getting battered in the center of the ring. Khan was self adjusting and moving away from the pain that Peterson was putting on him in the same way that a person pulls back when you expose their hand to a hot flame.

Khan simply couldn’t fight in the middle of the ring even if he wanted to, and Roach is now telling Khan he needs to fight in the center of the ring again. We’ll see how long that experiments lasts. It’s like someone saying they’re going to quit smoking and then in the next second they’re pulling a cigarette out when they’re under stress and smoking it.