By Marcus Richardson: If Top Rank CEO Bob Arum is interested in really fouling things up for Golden Boy Promotions then he can do just that by selecting Lamont Peterson for Manny Pacquiao to fight in June rather than one of the other four options that are currently being considered for Pacquiao’s next fight.
What makes Peterson such a cruel tool is that Golden Boy has been trying desperately to get a rematch set up between Peterson and their fighter Amir Khan after Peterson pulled off a major upset last month in a 12 round split decision win in Washington, DC. Golden Boy filed an expensive appeal to both the IBF and WBA.
The WBA gave them partially what they were looking for when they mandated that Peterson give Khan an immediate rematch. However, Golden Boy had less luck with the IBF and decided to cancel their appeal with them this week when two key figures from the fight – WBA supervisor Michael Welsh and referee Joe Cooper – weren’t going to be at the hearing. Golden Boy needs Khan to fight Peterson soon so that Khan try and make boxing fans forget about his loss.
However, Peterson is stalling for time instead of agreeing to the Khan rematch, even after he was offered a 50-50 deal this week with half of the UK pay per view money tossed in. That’s a very good deal but Peterson still is holding off, waiting to see if he gets selected to fight Pacquiao. If he does, he could end up vacating his titles for the big payday against Pacquiao. At the very least, it will mean a long wait for Khan to get an eventual rematch and with the huge hurry that’s in to try and get a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., this is a huge inconvenience to Khan and Golden Boy Promotions.
If Peterson fights Pacquiao, Arum will likely get Peterson to agree to options where he’ll either be his promoter or will have him fighting for him for a short while. It’s debatable whether Arum would opt to put Peterson back in with Khan or would instead look to set up an in house Top Rank fight between Peterson and his recent addition to the Top Rank team WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley. Peterson already lost to Bradley in 2009, but he’s been interested in a rematch ever since then.