By Marcus Richardson: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan has appealed his defeat at the hands of Lamont Peterson last weekend is looking to have the defeat overturned so that he can have the win. Khan lost the fight by the scores 113-112, 113-112 for Peterson, 114-111 for Khan. The two points that Khan deducted for pushing off in the 7th and 12th rounds were deciding factors in the fight, and Khan feels they were unfairly taken from him by referee Joe Cooper. Khan was also given credit for a 1st round knockdown where he didn’t even land a punch. He knocked Peterson down by bumping him with his arm, and Cooper failed to see this and gave Khan the knockdown.
Khan told the BBC Sport “We have appealed. In the next seven to ten days we should find out and it could be overturned. I was treated unfairly during the fight…The referee was from Washington so he was always going to favor the home fighter. He walks the streets of DC, so if he was fair and took points off Peterson he’d be hated in Washington. I don’t think he’ll be refereeing a big fight again. I want a rematch in a neutral venue.”
Khan seems convinced that he’s got a really strong case to get the loss changed to a victory, as he believes this to be a case of foul play. It’s going to be very difficult for the results to be overturned, however, because Khan was clearly pushing off on Peterson throughout the bout and the referee gave Khan ample warning to stop pushing on two separate occasions before he took the first point off from Khan in the 7th. Khan continued to push just as before following the point deduction, and the referee then took off another point in the 12th.
Khan isn’t going to endear himself with boxing fans by trying to get the results of the fight overturned because it really didn’t involve anything controversial. Khan was clearly breaking a rule by reaching out and shoving Peterson away on the two occasions he lost points. Khan also was given plenty of warnings to stop pushing by the referee.
Pushing off isn’t allowed in boxing and it’s the rule book stating that. Khan got away a lot of pushing in the fight. One site counted over 50 pushes by Khan. In the last round, an exhausted looking Khan seemed to increase the amount and the strength of his pushing off of Peterson, and it almost looked as if that was Khan’s main defense aside from his running. His game had completely deteriorated to pushing off, grabbing Peterson’s head to pull it forward, putting him in headlocks and running. Khan was taking punishment and not dealing with it well on the inside.
The fouling by Khan in this fight was similar to the fouling he did in bouts against Zab Judah and Marcos Maidana. Indeed, Khan stopped Judah in the 5th round by forcing his head down with his left forearm and while holding Judah in place nailing him with a right to the body. In other words, holding and hitting. While there was a big squawk about where Khan’s punch landed, the real issue – holding & hitting – was missed.
Peterson said after last Saturday’s fight that he was more bothered by Khan grabbing and pulling his head forward all the time than by Khan’s constant pushing off. Peterson said he would have liked to have seen Khan penalized for the head grabbing because it was causing both his neck and his back problems in the fight.
It’s hard to imagine the fight results being overturned. But even if they do, Khan says he’ll give Peterson a rematch regardless because he wants to prove he’s the better fighter, but Khan wants the rematch to happen immediately and he doesn’t want to have to wait.