Amir Khan can still beat Floyd Mayweather

source: BoxingNews

AMIR KHAN never saw it coming and neither did we. No one outside of Lamont Peterson's inner circle gave him a serious chance of actually beating Khan. The big question was how good of a fight he would provide. Turns out it was a pretty good one.

Khan's loss to Peterson was not exactly a train wreck for the now former champion. In some ways it can be a blessing in disguise. Most objective observers feel that Khan did not deserve to lose the fight. But the bottom line is that officially he did. And he has not stopped complaining since. Give it a rest Khan.

Part of Khan's appeal is that he is a breath of fresh air in a trash talking sport. And if he keeps complaining about the Peterson fight then he will have lost a lot more than his title. The young man from Bolton, England will start losing respect. And when I say Khan, that includes his promoter Golden Boy Promotions who have filed an appeal with the WBA and the IBF to have the decision overturned.

The fight was there for everyone to view. Khan does not need to put a spin on things to convince us that he was hard done.

The biggest myth concerning Khan's loss to Peterson was that referee Joe Cooper's biased refereeing cost him the fight. The Khan camp keeps complaining of the two points that Cooper took away from Amir for pushing. However, they neglect the fact that Khan was credited with a knockdown in the opening round even though replays clearly show that Peterson went down without being hit. So if you add the math up, two take away one equals one. Which is precisely the maximum amount of points that Khan lost because of poor refereeing.

Had judges George Hill and Valerie Dorsett given Khan at least seven of the twelve rounds, then he would have retained by unanimous decision. Instead they scored six rounds apiece enabling Peterson to come out ahead by a point (113-112) on both their cards. The other judge Nelson Vasquez saw Khan a clear winner at 115-110.

I gave Khan eight of the 12 rounds and had him up 114-111 at the conclusion. He definitely deserved the decision, but it was not a robbery. To the contrary, he allowed Peterson to do enough to be in a position to catch a break. He was the hometown fighter that December 10, 2011 evening in Washington D.C. but that is not the reason Peterson is the new champion. His effort was more inspiring than Khan's. Peterson fought with tremendous passion. Khan looked like he was auditioning for a Mayweather fight.

The ironic thing is that Khan in my view is still the man with the best chance to snap Mayweather's unbeaten run. I say this because his skill set is every bit as good as Floyd's. Some will scoff at that by saying Peterson is not nearly as good as Mayweather, yet he defeated Khan. Comparisons like this often don't hold to form. Style wise, Mayweather could not execute Peterson's fight plan of rushing at Khan and physically getting him out of his comfort zone. Mayweather does not have the power to rattle Khan the way Peterson did.

For Khan three good things came out of the loss. They are as follows: It will now be easier to get Mayweather into the ring. Khan stood up under tremendous punches showing his chin is not a liability. The fight was tremendously entertaining and everyone wants to see them do it again.

And they will do it again probably on May 19, 2012 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. GBP's has bragged that they made Peterson a seven-figure offer to do the rematch. They don't say how high of a seven figure purse it is. Please don't insult the public’s intelligence let alone Peterson's. Seven figures starts at one million dollars. Considering that Peterson got a reported half-million as the challenger, it would be absurd for him to accept that amount as champion. The market would call for him to get somewhere close to the two-million dollar range for an encore.

Khan will get his rematch one way or another. And we assume he will get it right this time not leaving any margin for error. But until that happens, Khan should keep a lid on what he has to say. Every time Amir speaks about the fight he looks bad, a heck of a lot worse than was the case earlier this month in Washington D.C.