By Michael Collins: Lamont Peterson’s trainer Barry Hunter teed off on Amir Khan yesterday, taking issue with Khan’s blaming his loss on other people instead of himself. Khan was beaten last month by a 12 round split decision in Peterson’s home city in Washington, DC.
Speaking with thesun.co.uk, Hunter said “Khan blames everyone but himself for his loss to Peterson in December last year. It would be an understatement to characterize Lamont as being disappointed in the unprofessional manner in which Khan is attempting to discredit his performance in the ring and victory. Real champions don’t continue to come up with various excuses and false accusations in hopes that something will stick to cover up for a loss.”
Khan took a chance by having the fight take place in that venue but obviously the money that could be made was too irresistible to turn down, but Khan soon found himself in unfamiliar surroundings. In Khan’s past fights in friendly arenas, he’s been able to get away with a number of questionable fighting tactics – shoving, pulling down on his opponent’s heads, headlocks, and holding & hitting – but in Washington, DC, Khan found himself getting warned repeatedly for these extracurricular tactics. The referee gave Khan repeated warnings but after it clear he wasn’t adapting to what was being told to him, the referee took a point off for Khan’s shoving in the 7th.
Khan continued to shove and pull down on Peterson’s head and water docked another point in the 12th for shoving. After the fight, Khan claimed that the referee had unfairly singled him out with his point deductions and he also made issue with the delay in the judges revealing their scorecards, and with a mystery man seen sitting with WBA supervisor Michael Welsh during the fight. Khan complained for days about all of this and was even the one that dug up the video of the mystery man seen at ringside with Welsh. Golden Boy Promotions, Khan’s promoter, is appealing the result of the fight with the IBF and WBA and are looking to have the fight overturned to a no contest or have an immediate rematch ordered. The IBF and WBA should have a ruling by January 18th.