Patrick McDermott - Getty Images
It looks like Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson will do it again this spring. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
Richard Schaefer has confirmed that the WBA will order a rematch between Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson next week, and the IBF could follow suit on January 18. Schaefer is also hoping the DC commission will change the result of the fight to a no-contest, but that may not be as likely:
"We received verbal confirmation today and we will get written confirmation by next Tuesday. That means that no fighter can take an interim fight, that the next fight for Peterson would be a re-match.
"We hope that the IBF will follow because that's the least they can do. The ruling of the WBA to order an immediate re-match should put additional pressures on the IBF."
He is also hopeful that the outcome of the fight will be changed to "no contest", allowing Khan to retain his belts, but said: "It's difficult to guess the no-contest ruling. I certainly hope this could happen."
You know, no matter how you choose to look at it, this is an enormous mess and just another eye-rolling boxing situation.
But what sucks most about this is the fact that many, including the oddsmakers, seemed to believe this was going to be another gimme exhibition for a star fighter. Turned out it was a good, competitive fight. And yet instead of celebrating a good fight, a big upset, and the fact that sure, a rematch would be great, because the first fight was really damn good, we're mired in this controversy crap yet again, part of which is coming off extremely poorly on the Khan/Golden Boy side, but part of which is perfectly understandable. There are too many issues combining here to keep ignoring that they probably should be given the rematch, whatever your personal opinion of Khan may be.
So I'm going to try to choose to look at the bright side: It's a fight I really do want to see again. If Peterson can't get Pacquiao, and he's got to be choice No. 4 there, then this is still a good payday for Lamont, another big fight for him, and a chance to prove it was no fluke.
Khan is currently scheduled to return in the UK for his next fight, but Peterson may be unwilling to go overseas for a fight. If he does not, expect the fight in Los Angeles at Staples Center, or in Las Vegas.
0 recs | 41 comments
It is a little dissimilar to Mares/Agbeko. That fight was marred by grossly inept officiating — it was not a case of judgment calls but blown calls. This fight had legitimate foul calls that many folks thought should have been allowed to slide.
schraubd - January 7, 2012
It’s not just about what happened with the three guys in the ring; this is grossly inept officiating outside of the ring. There really are a lot of problems with what happened here. The IBF official had no business doing what he was doing, whatever it was, and it really happened. There are questions about the scorecards. It’s a mess.
Scott Christ - January 7, 2012
Was that Khan’s dad behind said official? .. it looked like him to me.
Phill - January 7, 2012
Yes. Khan mentioned it in his twitter tirade.
Waldo Rastel - January 7, 2012 via Android app
Cheers Waldo, I don’t use twitter and I just saw the stills and some video on Sky News.
Was there any mention of Khan’s dad seeing anything suspicious there and then?
Phill - January 7, 2012
well hopefully they get a ref who isn’t afraid to penalize Khan for pushing Peterson’s head down and holding excessively…
mambocowboy - January 7, 2012
Or maybe Khan will have learned and doesn’t employ those tactics in a rematch.
Phill - January 7, 2012
he should definitely do something different because even with the holding and pushing, Lamont was able to get to him and he made a lot of fundamental mistakes… and a lot of boneheaded decisions too
Apprentice - January 7, 2012
Out maybe Khan should just be better at boxing then he wouldn’t need to deal with this nonsense.
Waldo Rastel - January 7, 2012 via Android app
Or maybe Khan should push with his feet and not his hand? I mean, that’s what Peterson was doing. Clinch and drive to rope.
jack_e_chan - January 7, 2012
i still haven’t seen anything worthy of changing the decision. i feel like if these ‘issues’ are enough to change the decision, that golden boy could probably find these types of things in every close boxing match.
manny-marquez III had ‘issues’. mayweather-ortiz had ‘issues’. same with cotto-margarito. williams-lara definitely had issues. every close fight has these. boxing isn’t a clean clear-cut sport. so much subjectivity. might as well go back to the old school way of scoring where unless there is a knockout, it’s a draw.
i just hope this doesn’t create a world where every close fight is protested.
jake_ash - January 7, 2012
At least Cotto got his revenge in the end :)
Phill - January 7, 2012
but it was all a conspiracy! margarito answered the ‘how many fingers’ questions correctly and the doc still stopped it! in the unified rules on the REFEREE can stop the fight! we all know smoger didn’t want to stop the fight! he let wolak fight on. protest. no contest. immediate rematch.
jake_ash - January 7, 2012
Is it still possible for Peterson to vacate the belt(s) if there’s going to be more money on the table for a Pacquiao fight?
gravydeath - January 7, 2012
You can always vacate the belts or not even bother with them like Carlos Baldomir did when he beat Zab Judah. They can’t put a gun to your head to get you in the ring with aomeone if you don’t want to.
Kory Kitchen - January 7, 2012
Did it really affect the outcome?
Everything I’ve read seems to suggest he was only talking to WBA Supervisor Michael Welsh not any of the judges. If this is the case, then what it seems to me he had no influence on the outcome of the fight and so it would be unfair for Lamont to have his win taken away for something he has no control over and didn’t change the result of the fight.
d.k - January 7, 2012
Rematch? Yes. No contest? Fuck you you petty fuck. (Sorry, those are the only words I have for that.)
El Destruyo - January 7, 2012
petty fuck works perfectly. considering that’s what this all is, petty bullshit.
The Twillness - January 8, 2012
this is getting ridiculous.
The Twillness - January 8, 2012
It would be hilarious if Peterson won the rematch as well
caligula. - January 8, 2012
at this point i hope he does. i think khan’s genuinely talented and im a fan of his fighting but he’s annoying the shit out of me.
The Twillness - January 8, 2012
That pretty much sums my feeling up
Have always been a fan of his. Both out of the ring and his in ring ability. Still think he will win the rematch.
But fuck him. The man has just whined and whined. I don’t care for him now
Sweet science - January 8, 2012
The real problem
Is that even if there was some kind of tampering, a Peterson win wasn’t at all unreasonable. I watched twice, and once I had each winning. I would still make Khan the heavy favorite in a rematch though. Khan fought the worst fight I can remember for a Roach fighter (other than maybe Khan-Maidana), and I just think he’d be trained for a different fight this time. But I also think Khan will never live up to his full potential at this point. He’ll still be a damn good fighter, and very few do live up to their potentials, but he’s just not smart enough in the ring to hide his flaws well enough to be spectacular. Some of his talents are super flashy, but he can’t hide the weak points enough to take advantage. Not everyone can be Wladimir Klitschko.
Brickhaus - January 8, 2012 via mobile
Troubling
That’s troubling that you would actually have peterson winning,
edub001 - January 8, 2012
Don't be ridiculous
I had it a draw with one 10 10 round (The 10th I think) Many had it a close fight.
Sweet science - January 8, 2012
It was a close fight. I had Amir winning without the deductions but it was by the bare minimum, so any swing rounds can definitely go either way.
Apprentice - January 8, 2012
khan
Its about time. Khan Wins this Rematch Going away. Depending how bad Khan dominates we could see a rubbermatch. Or Khan ready for mayweather in Nov.
DiE_HARDFER - January 8, 2012 via mobile
The problem with khan
Is he is too busy being told how good he is by everyone around him!!! It reminds me on a much larger scale of James DeGale. When he lost to Groves everyone around him said he won the fight, all his entourage. Nobody said ok James we lost that one lets put some real work in and find out what went wrong.
Perks4ever - January 8, 2012
Funny
It’s funny to see how much venom Khan (and his team) gets on this message board, for protesting a fight that pretty much everyone agrees he should have won (even with the point deductions that even more people agree should never have been enforced).
They’re doing what every screwed fighter should do (after getting screwed).
edub001 - January 8, 2012
you mean: pretty much everyone, except most of the people?
you mean: even more of pretty much everyone, except the even bigger majority of people?
DrHenrik - January 8, 2012
I thought Khan lost, and I’m a fan of Khan. Peterson was the better man on the night end of story.
36_chambers_ofdeatH - January 8, 2012
It’s hard to say, it was a close fight. In person two things were more apparent than rewatching on video: Khan’s running, and Peterson’s occasional inactivity. In addition, most of Khan’s punches in the late round were shoe shining, so it was a real pick’em fight. But since I’m from DC, and I like Peterson, I gotta root for the champ.
cylee1180 - January 8, 2012
By “pretty much everyone,” you mean “a lot of people,” except I know you don’t mean that, because it’s not what you said. Plenty of people felt Peterson won, too. I scored it for Khan by a point.
Yeah, well, those people are wrong. “I’ve never seen that!” Well so what? It actually IS a rule. Just because it isn’t enforced doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be. “That wouldn’t happen in Vegas!” So? You know what DOES happen in Vegas? The refereeing genius of Joe Cortez and Russell Mora.
Scott Christ - January 8, 2012
The re-match will certainly prove very interesting, Im just a bit dissapointed the Khan v Prescott rematch will be in the bin for the moment. Was anybody else as excited about that as i was? The Khan v Peterson rematch will obviously be better quality and Khan will definitely be better prepared mentally for the bout, looking at a genuine contender rather than looking forward to his 147 debut. Just a pity the circumstances surrounding the whole affair turned out the way they did
Bald-Eagle - January 8, 2012
I don’t think Khan-Prescott was ever in the negotiating stage, ODLH was just twitter teasing the "lads".
DPlainview - January 8, 2012
hahaha
Sweet science - January 8, 2012
Khan is the new Judah… talent w no brains. I don’t think he’s overly “skillful”, but he has a ton of potential, athletic talent, and promise, and in my eyes, he’s no longer a young prospect, nor does he have the HUMILITY to accept a loss and improve, so yes, his arrogance, his stubborness, and his lack of ring IQ will keep him from doing anything different. I don’t think he’ll learn from the Maidana or Peterson fights… so therefore, Peterson UD in rematch , by a more clear margin (this time, no phony knockdown, no time wasted trying to outbox the speedster). Here’s the thing, beyond fundamentals… I feel Khan is lacking the more “abstract” or finer skills: adjusting and adapting to an opponent, having more than one game plan, moving AND jabbing/boxing, infighting, ring generalship (taking his opponents skills and using them agst him or taking away his weapons incrementally), and defense. Those things WILL not change… he will continue to have fast feet, he will be a better combination puncher, he will fight better off his front foot, he will still having blinding handspeed and power, and he will still have guts/heart, but he was also still be prone to intelligent fighters, the uppercut, laying on the ropes, and running. When you get hit, you go back to what you know. We’ve seen Khan do this twice across two years, what makes you think he’ll be any different? In his mind, he has still not loss twice yet, that’s a very dangerous mindset…
cylee1180 - January 8, 2012
And this makes Pacquiao such an exception. No matter how good he got in his prime, he continued to be open to learning new things.
cylee1180 - January 8, 2012
the worst is seeing guys take the case for a belt or a loss, basically to court.
having a fight’s outcome settled at a bargaining table or by a bunch of guys wearing suits.
f’ing lame.
theworldsoldestsport - January 8, 2012
I don’t see any resemblance between this fight and the Agbeko – Mares disaster, they seem opposite to me: Agbeko was fouled mercilessly, the fouls were never called, and the guy committing the fouls won (might have anyway, did the next time); here, the fouls were called, and the guy committing the fouls lost— they’re exactly opposite, no matter how soft core someone may consider the foul of pushing. Khan did it a lot, and was warned a lot. (I had Peterson winning by 1 point.)
BoxAnne - January 9, 2012
I’ll just C+P myself here:
People have tunnel vision on the people in the ring. There are officials officiating outside, too. And there are legitimate issues here. Look, I agree Khan’s a brat and comes off like a baby. I agree it’s funny, the idea that GBP doesn’t just get their way. Unfortunately there are too many problems to dismiss just because Khan acts like a crybaby.
Scott Christ - January 9, 2012
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