Peterson motivated to beat Khan a second time to prove he deserved to win last time

By William Mackay: IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) will be looking to leave no doubt in the mind of boxing fans and in the mind of his opponent former IBF/WBA light welterweight champ Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) in their rematch on May 19th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Peterson defeated Khan by a 12 round split decision last December, winning by the scores of 115-111 for Khan, 113-112 and 113-112 for Peterosn.

At today’s press conference in Los Angeles, Peterson said this about the Khan fight as quoted by examiner.com “Amir Knan believes he won the last fight and I believe that I won, so we’re going in this with something to prove.”

For his part, Khan said “I’m more focused than ever. Sometimes when things don’t go [your] way it makes [you] work harder.”

For starters, Khan could work harder to stop fouling as much when he faces Peterson in the rematch, because Khan made it ugly the last time they fought by constantly shoving, pulling down on his head and putting him in headlocks. It’s disappointing to imagine that there are a lot of referees out there in the boxing world that likely would never have taken any points away for Khan for his shoving of Peterson. And there are also probably just as many that wouldn’t even give Khan a warning for the shoving, pulling down on his head and putting him in headlocks.

Khan lost two points for the shoving of Peterson last time but was given ample opportunities to stop with the shoving by being warned several times by the referee. The rematch will probably see Khan continuing with the fouling after one or two cleanly fought rounds, and my guess is Khan will be allowed to use the same fouls he used on Peterson last time without having any points taken away. Hopefully that doesn’t happen but that’s how I see this one going. Peterson is going to have to come up with a strategy to prevent Khan from using these fouls if the referee won’t do his job to control Khan.