Khan v Peterson set, Matthysse v Soto undercard

Great double bill being lined up for May, Khans lot have thrown a whole bunch of money at Peterson to get it, but they got it. Matthysse v Soto is a guarenteed barnsburner too i feel, and will give Matthysse the chance he deserves to make a mark in the 140 class after being jobbed twice.

Two great fights on the card. Looking forward to this one. I was hoping Khan maybe learned a few lessons from the last time and would work on his inside game, which is woefully poor for this level. However I noticed one of his comments on ring.com:

"I'm glad that he chose to fight me again. Now that the fight's been made, I'm just going to go back to boxing. I'm not going to make the same mistakes that I made in the first fight. I think that we stayed on the inside a little bit too long," said Khan"

Suggests to me that he's going to rely on sticking to his strengths, and will try to box Peterson on the outside. If he's successful with the strategy he'll win comfortably. But, if Peterson is able to pressure him again, then I think Khan will be as clueless as last time. As is often the case with recent Khan fights, I expect Khan's combination of world class strengths and glaring weaknesses to make for an edge-of-the-seat fight. But, is he really preparing himself for a step up in competition by seemingly ignoring the obvious holes in his inside game?

Matthysse v Soto is tough to call, but you can bet it'll be entertaining. Agreed that Matthyse deserves a few good well paying fights after the way he's been done on the scorecards.

I might be wrong but didn't Khan want to box him on the outside last time? He just couldn't keep Peterson off him (without pushing him).

Khan wound me up a little bit on Ringside last night. First of all the fight being in the final round is not justification for no points being deducted for blatant and persistant pushing. Secondly, saying 'I take nothing away from Peterson' doesn't mean that you can go and spout a load of stuff that does exactly that.

All that said and done, it was a good fight before and should be a good fight again.

The problem Khan has in the rematch is Peterson will come straight at him from the bell this time so he is much less likely to have a couple of round headstart gifted to him. Unless Khan can dramatically improve his inside work or find a legal way to keep Peterson off he could easily get beat again. There will also be the new found confidence that being a champion will give Peterson which will make him an even tougher prospect. My prediction is UD for Peterson this time with less controversy.

Hopefully Khan is just trying to treat us all like muppets because if he believes that the fight went the way it did because he chose to fight on the inside then he's in big trouble. Peterson changed tactics because fighting on the outside was going seriously wrong for him. When Khan gets tired or his legs go wobbly he has no choice but to fight on the inside. He only knows the one way to box and that's to get in and out with speed. Once you get to a certain level though not everyone is going to just sit back and admire your work.

Good news and a good fights!

Matthysse and Soto are both entertaining and both deserve more recognition so i hope they achieve this on the night.

Bit of a test for Freddie Roach now the rematch is set. He has had a fantastic run with Pacquiao and some good performances with Khan, but there have just been a few questions creeping in recently which has been pretty much unheard of over recent years. Can he get Amir to make the necessary adjustments that he needed to make during the first fight? If even idiots like me can spot Amir's shortcomings, then I am sure Freddie Roach can, but will it make enough difference come fight night?

Does he need to make serious technical adjustments, or just get back inside Amir's head and tell him to stop attempting his George Chuvalo impression and get back to what he does best? Interesting sub-plot to the story.

So excited about the soto fight. I really like Matthysse and imo should be unbeaten and if he has wins over kotelnik, Judah and Alexander then he would be #1 in the division. He has the power of maidana but has enter boxing skills.

Although I don't think Peterson should have given him a rematch, the first fight was very good and if Peterson starts off fast then he could win.

I agree that khan tried to fight on the outside but Peterson had good enough footspeed to get him on the inside. I don't buy the bs khan says about him wanting to fight on the inside in the 1st fight

I expect Khan to win the rematch on points by a fair and relatively comfortable margin. I'm not a huge fan of his, but even I'd accept that he's much, much better than the performance he gave in the first fight - a fight which, even with his odd tactics and the point deductions, I still had him winning, just about.

For all his faults, Khan does, to me at least, seem to have a wonderful work ethic - I think he and Roach will be working furiously on the mistakes he made first time out. I think Khan in top form can keep Peterson's repetitive and straight-line attack in check with his jab and superior movement / speed. Maybe I'm underestimating Peterson, maybe I'm being too generous to Khan, but just can't shake the feeling that the result we saw on December 10th was a bit of a freak one.

but just can't shake the feeling that the result we saw on December 10th was a bit of a freak one. .

Perhaps, chris. However, Khan's inside game was less than impressive and it appears that Peterson was following a pretty clear blueprint to beat him. If Peterson reaches the same levels he reached in Washington and Khan hasn't learned his lesson, I can see another tough night for Amir.

Glad this got made... we have a lot of good/decent fights to look forward to this year.

I'm happy the rematch is made. Not happy about the manner in which it was forced, but the fight was controversial and needed a rematch. Khan needs to learn (again), Roach has been good for him, but he seems to have Plateau’d again.
Peterson was charging in begging for an uppercut, Khan really needs to have that punch nailed come rematch date, He needs to losen up a bit, wing a few more hooks in, mix it up from the jab straight right.

The fight will be entertaining, has plenty of needle, what more could you want? I want to see fights that I'm interested in, not Bhop, dawson 2.

Soto, this will be entertaining while it lasts, but Soto is too small, too many wars and will get beat up by Mathysses (sp)

88Chris05 wrote:I expect Khan to win the rematch on points by a fair and relatively comfortable margin. I'm not a huge fan of his, but even I'd accept that he's much, much better than the performance he gave in the first fight - a fight which, even with his odd tactics and the point deductions, I still had him winning, just about.

For all his faults, Khan does, to me at least, seem to have a wonderful work ethic - I think he and Roach will be working furiously on the mistakes he made first time out. I think Khan in top form can keep Peterson's repetitive and straight-line attack in check with his jab and superior movement / speed. Maybe I'm underestimating Peterson, maybe I'm being too generous to Khan, but just can't shake the feeling that the result we saw on December 10th was a bit of a freak one.

I hope Khan and Roach do work on his weaknesses, but I feel more convinced that that Khan will simply attempt to go with the old formula of staying on the outside, punching in fast, eye catching, and occasionally hurtful flurries, and then avoiding punches by getting on his bike. Khan has tremendous physical gifts, which he's worked hard on with Roach, and so he might well be successful in employing these tactics. However, it's the lack of ability to make adjustments if he gets pressured or hurt that is the main problem for Khan in my opinion. Even in the aftermath of the Maidana and Peterson fights, in which Khan was shown to have complete lack of an inside defensive game (short of illegally pushing down on the head), he never once made any reference to any holes in his game, or work that needs done. Obviously as fans we don't know all that's going on in training camps, but from a distant outside perspective (which, as fans, is all we're afforded) it looks like Khan is mostly concentrated on working his existing skills base and tactics. Khan is not a thinking fighter as it is, and constantly working on an in and out strategy will leave him woefully unprepared for the top tier guys.

I saw some recent comments from Tim Bradley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDh12g1A4k&feature=relmfu What he was saying about making adjustments really rung true for me. I was also struck by how assured and quick off the bat he seems in making responses that concern tactical boxing knowledge. This stands in real contrast to what are often cliche-laden, substance lacking responses from Khan when asked similar questions. I think this says something about their respective boxing IQs.

I would like to see Khan win, and I think he can compete at a high level with his existing physical gifts and tactics (and I hope I'm wrong about his lack of ability in terms of training to adapt), but the way I watch him currently operating, I don't see him going too far past his current level.

Peterson will pound Khan into submission. Khan doesn't have the skill or power to push Peterson on to the back foot. Peterson will KO Khan

I think Peterson gave the fight of his life last time and it was still really close...Thing is Khan knows what to change to win...don't see what Peterson can do to improve - get on Khan's chest from round one rather than try and box him at the start??

I think it will be a close one again but Khan will just do enough to nick rounds

On a positive note Khan actually seemed interested in Kell Brook fight now!!