Lamont Peterson rebukes 'arrogant' Amir Khan over rematch

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/17349548

Lamont Peterson has accused Amir Khan of "arrogance" for suggesting he is unable to fight better than he did in their controversial first bout.

Khan has said he will "win convincingly" in the Las Vegas rematch and that Peterson would not surpass his efforts of their fight in December.

"How can you just assume that I can't fight better than what I fought him in Washington DC and he can?" he said.

The world title rematch takes place at the Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, on 19 May.

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“There was no cheating going on in [Washington] DC. Deep down inside [Amir] Khan knows that”

Lamont Peterson
Khan lost his IBF and WBA light-welterweight belts in December in Washington DC in a split points decision last year.

Peterson told BBC Sport that the Bolton boxer was demonstrating "arrogance" ahead of a London news conference to promote the rematch.

"I won't say the same about him," said Peterson. "I expect him to fight a better fight but, at the same time, I know I'm going to be better.

"He can overlook what happened in DC all he wants. It's only going to hurt him to think that way, not me. So I'm glad he thinks that way."

Initially, Khan appealed against the loss to Peterson, citing concerns about points deductions by referee Joseph Cooper for pushing and also the judging of the fight.

Peterson, however, was keen to put his point of view across on events both inside and outside the ring that night.

"There was no cheating going on in DC," he insisted. "Deep down inside Khan knows that.

"The points being taken away from him? They should have took points. Pushing is one thing. Forearming someone in the face then pushing off is another.

"Any time you do damage to someone due to fouls you should get points deducted."

In January, Khan took to his Twitter account to ask a series of questions over "mystery man" Mustafa Ameen who was seen at ringside talking to Michael Welsh, the WBA scoring supervisor, throughout the bout.

In an exclusive interview with BBC Sport later that same month, Ameen claimed he was only correcting mistakes and that Welsh had been complaining of feeling unwell.

"[Mustafa Ameen] had no business being there but at the end of the day he didn't touch any judge's scorecard," said Peterson.

"They can feel what they want but deep down inside they know the truth."

“You can watch any Amir Khan fight, he pushes all the time... he always pulls people's heads down”

Lamont Peterson
Peterson also responded to suggestions from the Khan camp that he repeatedly used his head during the fight, prompting Khan to push him away.

He said: "You can watch any Amir Khan fight, he pushes all the time.

"But I was coming to him more often than other people, so he pushed a little more.

"But he always does it. He always pushes. He always pulls people's heads down.

"I have no history of head-butting anyone or head-charging anyone."

With several big-name fighters looking for potential match-ups, the 28-year-old was clear in his ambitions for life after the rematch, with his mind set on securing a shot at Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao , the current giants of the welterweight division.

"I want to be considered one of the best fighters," added Peterson.

"So fighting one of those guys, getting a victory over Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao, will get me to that goal. So of course, those are the guys that I want."

azania wrote:

manos de piedra wrote:To be honest I think the bookies have this one about right. I doubt Khan will have it easy but I kind of feel Peterson performed near to his best, caught Khan a little underprepared mentally and tactically and also got the rub of the officiating.

I think Khan will address at least two of these issues next time out and set the record straight.

I said from the morning after their first fight, that if there were to be a rematch I believe LP would win. Khan is the more skilled boxer, but LP appears to be the better fighter. I dont believe LP fought the fight of his life. I just believe he got better. Khan can make all the excuses he chooses to after the event. For me the facts remain that Khan
1) Doesn't have the jab with any authority to keep fighters off him
2) He doesn't plant his feet when punching.
3) Relies too much on his handspeed and neglects his footwork to get in and out of range
4) Absolutely terrible for a supposed world class fighter in inside fighting
5) I dont believe he trusts his chin as when he's hit, he panics and fires back and trades instead of moving or holding (unless he's hit very hard a la Maidana)

Hope he wins but I'm very doubtful of that. He'll move up, call out and claim Floyd is ducking him when he literally brings nothing to the table to warrant a Floyd fight.

Even with all Khans weaknesses, and there are a number, I still think he has the beating of Peterson. Would by and large agree with your list of weaknesses but we also have to remember that even with these, he still managed to beat Maidana (albeit narrowly) and he more or less went to the wire with Peterson.

If you scored it to Khan in the last fight, with or without the deductions then I would tend to think its more likely that Khan has the greater potential to improve on the last performance. Less likely to be surprised by Petersons tactics, more likely to be focused and better prepared. I suppose this is more or less what people mean by saying Peterson fought the fight of his life. Maybe not, but tactically he was pretty spot on and even with that he only managed a win by the most narrowest of margins. Essentialy can he fight Khan much better than he did in his last outing? You could say he could avoid a bad first couple of rounds but in general I dont think the room for improvement is all that great. With Khan I think the room for improvement is far greater and even if he improves 10% it should be enough to win.

I heard Peterson being interviewed on Irish radio soon after the rematch was announced. I must say he came across as a decent guy. He mentioned how he seemed to get so little credit after the fight. But said that was nothing new in his life.

From the way he was talking I would say he will be putting everything into this fight and not looking ahead to possible future fights.

I agree rawa, can't help but like him, hope he fights the exact same as the first fight, as long as he applies pressure from early on and can hang in there, Khan will tire. I'll be rooting for him.

That's interesting manos. You're saying that Khan has the potential to improve. I agree but I think that Khan's ring intelligence will prohibit him from improving against LP. That depends on the tactics adopted by LP also. I believe LP has more variety to his game which will give him the edge. Khan will be waiting for LP to adopt a tactic in which he will try and react to. As Khan will be the reactive boxer I believe it will cost him. I dont think LP will rush him from R1. I think he'll mix it up, keep Khan guessing and take a decision.

LP now knows how to beat Khan. That confidence will improve his performance. It will be a good fight though as Khan because of all his faults is one of the most exciting active fighters around today.

Peterson wont be able to win in any other way, if he doesn't pressure from the get go he'll be getting comprehensively outboxed losing round after round, he may have slightly more variety but only one plan will work, don't think anyone at 140lb outboxes Khan.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Peterson wont be able to win in any other way, if he doesn't pressure from the get go he'll be getting comprehensively outboxed losing round after round, he may have slightly more variety but only one plan will work, don't think anyone at 140lb outboxes Khan.

How I believe he'll win is by keeping Khan guessing all night long. A boxer reacting is not as efficient as one who instigates the exchanges.

I hope I'm wrong as I want Khan to win and win in style just to shut up some of his many detractors. Cant see it unfortunately.

Think you are overplaying his adaptability a bit, his usual boxing style has found him wanting at the highest level to some extent and only really got success with pressuring Khan after getting into a rhythm, if he keeps chopping and changing he wont have any rhythm to build on.

As patriotic as i am, i'm afraid i'd like to see Khan lose this one. Hopefully he'll realize he's not as good as he thinks, get a new trainer, eat some humble pie, and grow up.
But on a more positive note....you know what today is don't you???

That's right.....it's.......

http://www.steakandbjday.com/

Enjoy

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Think you are overplaying his adaptability a bit, his usual boxing style has found him wanting at the highest level to some extent and only really got success with pressuring Khan after getting into a rhythm, if he keeps chopping and changing he wont have any rhythm to build on.

Maybe I have. But from what I saw, when he pressured Khan, Khan was all over the place. When Maidana pressured Khan, the same thing happened. LP needs to apply that pressure with intelligence. He appears an intelligent person who listens and follows instructions. Something Khan has problems with.

He can sustain his rhythm because its him instigating it. Much like a switch-hitter choosing when to switch.

Agreed. I feel that Khan getting away with his near misses with excellent boxing in spurts - somehow made him paper over the cracks that he has - then they get exposed like this and he is forced to confront them - he is nothing if not a hard worker so might see a drastic improvement in those areas. The Khan who fought peterson in that fight might lose but a khan with even a slight improvment may make it look easier than it is.

azania wrote:That's interesting manos. You're saying that Khan has the potential to improve. I agree but I think that Khan's ring intelligence will prohibit him from improving against LP. That depends on the tactics adopted by LP also. I believe LP has more variety to his game which will give him the edge. Khan will be waiting for LP to adopt a tactic in which he will try and react to. As Khan will be the reactive boxer I believe it will cost him. I dont think LP will rush him from R1. I think he'll mix it up, keep Khan guessing and take a decision.

LP now knows how to beat Khan. That confidence will improve his performance. It will be a good fight though as Khan because of all his faults is one of the most exciting active fighters around today.

I think it will a little different this time around. Khans ring generalship doesnt impress me, his adaptability is questionable. But I think last time he was genuinely caught cold to some extent. Its not an excuse, but it could well be a reason.

Firstly mentally. This was expected to be a routine Khan defence against a challenger with a credible but not special record. Bigger fights were on the horizon for Khan. Fighters always say they train like challengers, dont look past the next fight yada yada yada but history has shown this is not this case. I think Khan expected a far easier night. The mere fact he offered to fight Peterson in DC kind of indicates they thought this would be easy. I dont believe Khan was really about going into the lions den etc - I think he just felt the fight would be straightforward and it didnt matter going to DC. This time round things are alot different. Defeat would be very harmful for Khan, hes the challenger this time and I expect him to be alot more focused. The fight with Mayweather is no longer on the horizon so he knows he has to win to this.

Secondly is tactics. I beleive Khans weaknesses have ben well documented from the start realy and he has favoured fighting certain types of fighters over others. He likes fighting boxers, is vunerable against swarmers. Maidana was the only real exception to this but he was a mandatory and to some extent used as an acid test for Khan. Khan won, but not impressively which was all the more magnified by how easy he won against the likes of Malignaggi and Judah. Clearly, he just struggles against that style. Against lesser boxers he can just beat them at their own game by outspeeding and outskilling them which is what he did to Malignaggi and Judah. I think they thought it would be more of the same against Peterson. That it would be a boxing match and Khan held all the advantages. Peterson caught them cold with his tactics which I definately dont think were anticipated. Khan failed to successfully cpe with them but this time round he will be expecting them before the fight rather than suddenly finding hismelf at sea mid rounds in the heat of battle. So I think this will make a big difference.

If the first fight told Peterson anything its that he cant outbox or outspeed Khan, but he can potentially out hustle him. So I would expect him to try and keep working on this and just keep at his pressure game. He may improve it, but with Khan expecting it and working on countering it himslef this time I just think Peterson will have less success than he did in the first fight.

Then we have all the issues with the officiating which could potentially happen again I guess but think its highly unlikely that Khan gets 2 points deducted this time around even if he does infract.

I think Khan will always be vunerable to that pressure style but its not really Petersons natural style and I think Khan will just be more focused and better prepared for it this time round whereas Peterson will just be looking for more of the same really. Khan can look back on the fight and see lots of areas to improve on. Peterson can only really look back and see one area to try and improve on which is just to get better at pressuring. So I see Khan as having the greater potential to improve. He may not of course, but my feeling is he will.

I accept the mentality issue and agree that doing to DC probably he meant it to be a routine defence. But as with Maidana, when LP pressured him, he was all at sea. Given that Khan scored a KD in R1 (cancelled by the ponts deductions) from R3 onwards, I had LP ahead at the end. Khan had the first 2 rounds won and LP I had winning 5-4 with one round even.

LP will pressure but pick his spots thereby confusing and keeping Khan guessing.

Not really sure how you mean pick his spots pressuring him?

My idea behind pressuring is that you apply it constantly and consistently if you are having success with it as thats how you are winning the rounds. Its really the only way I can see Peterson winning.

If he just applies it in fits and starts then Khans not really under pressure and is getting plenty of time and space which suits him. If this happens I think he will just outbox Peterson rather than get confused.

If I were Peterson I would be looking to just improve my pressuring game - get better at cutting off the ring, inflicting more damage when in close, picking the shots better when Khan is trapped, more head movement etc. Khan has the upper hand when boxing at distance, Peterson has the upper hand up close. Thus if I were Peterson I would just try to keep Khan under the cosh and give him no room to box.

What a difference between two people. Petersen is a humble dignified and proud champion as a boxer and human being. Khan is a complete tool and will be never be worthy of the title champion even should he win this fight.

I hope Petersen gives nim the hiding of his life, as that seems to be the only way to teach aholes like Khan humility. Well it worked on Naz anyway. If Petersen can embarass Khan into retirement like Marco did to Naz he will be doing everyone a huge favour. Well it will make my day anyway

Agree Peterson is a decent, hard working professional who deserved to be champion, not for one minute does he deserve this controversy in what was meant to be his "finest hour".
I find his style entertaining to watch, the sheer effort and desire to win is obvious as his skill alone would win him jack at world level.