By William Mackay: It was both interesting and quite sad to see Amir Khan’s promoter Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, trying to explain away Khan’s recent losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia at today’s London press conference. Schaefer tried to say that Khan doesn’t have a problem with taking hard shots, and instead blamed it on the placement of the left hook that Garcia hit Khan with in the third round of their fight last July. Khan ended up getting knocked out in the 4th round after getting knocked down three separate times.

As for Khan’s loss to Peterson, Schaefer brought up the mystery man with the hat that sat at the scorers table during a portion of the fight, as if this changed what happened in the fight.

“Everyone said he’s [Khan] got no chin. I think he proved he has a chin. He beat Marcos Maidana. He went toe-to-toe. And by the way, while we’re talking about this, I read the stories, ‘there he goes he has no chin’ following the [Danny] Garcia fight. Well, he wasn’t even hit on the chin. If you watch the replays, I don’t even know what those people are talking about. When you’re King Kong or King Khan when you get hit on the spot [Schaefer points to his right side of his neck] where Amir got hit anyone would be stopped. So all these critics about his chin. Then we know the man in the hat showed up [for Lamont Peterson vs. Khan fight] and that is a thing of the past…This is a new beginning. He’s 140 now and soon he’ll be 147.”

The strange thing about Schaefer’s rant was that he appeared to be annoyed with Khan’s critics for them having pointed out the obvious about Khan’s chin. I don’t know exactly what Schaefer wanted from fans and writers. It’s like having a white elephant in the room that you don’t want to talk about. How can Khan’s critics/fans not mention Khan’s chin as being fragile, because it’s not as if this was the first time Khan was hurt. The shots that Breidis Prescott hit Khan out with in knocking him out in the 1st round weren’t punches that landed on Khan’s neck.

The big right hand that Maidana stunned Khan with didn’t land on Khan’s heck. They hit him in the head and he was staggering like a drunk after getting hit. What Schaefer doesn’t point out about Khan’s so-called toe-to-toe battle with Maidana was how often referee Joe Cortez stepped in between Maidana and Khan when Maidana was trying to finish him off. It was like watching an offensive tackle getting in the way of a defensive player. To this day I think Maidana would have knocked Khan out in that fight in 2010 if Cortez hadn’t been in the way so often in the last three crucial rounds of the fight.

Schaefer went on to say that license fees for Khan signing with Showtime after moving from HBO went up and not down. Schaefer seemed to be gloating about this. However, Showtime might end up being sorry for signing up Khan if he continues to take losses. If they don’t have opt out portion of the contract they could end up having Khan fighting for big money and either getting knocked out each time he steps up against a quality fighter like Danny Garcia or Lucas Matthysse, or they’ll be stuck having to put him in with guys like little lightweight Carlos Molina each time he fights in order to keep Khan from getting knocked out. What good is that? I think Showtime might have made a big mistake in signing Khan unless they’re okay with him not being a champion.