Amir Khan: Ringside Report Plays Match Maker & Has Three Big Fights He Should Take!
Welterweight contender Amir “King” Khan last fought on May 7th, when he suffered a brutal sixth round KO to then WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Khan is now back at welterweight and has recently stated that he plans on fighting three times in 2017 (January, May, and December). With that being said, here are three potential match ups I would like to be seen made with Amir Khan next year:
Lamont Peterson Rematch
Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson first fought on December 10th 2011, at the Convention Center in Washington D.C. for Khan’s WBA and IBF light welterweight title belts. Peterson won “The Capital Showdown” by way of a controversial 12 round split decision. Khan started early, coming out throwing a lot of punches and scoring a knockdown in the first round. Peterson then adjusted his game plan; making it an evenly matched fight the rest of the way. Khan had a point deducted by referee Joe Cooper in the seventh round for pushing Peterson away and again in the twelfth round for the same reason. These point deductions ended up being the deciding factor on two of the judges’ scorecards. The judges ultimately scored the bout 113-112 (twice) for Peterson and 115-110 for Khan. Many boxing fans and Khan himself, felt he did enough to retain his championship belts. After the fight, Khan blamed the decision on the referee and the fight taking place in Peterson’s hometown of Washington D.C. “I was against him and the referee, it was definitely a hometown decision” Khan proclaimed in his post-fight interview with Larry Merchant. Peterson felt he won the fight, and was open to a rematch; saying in his post-fight interview “I would definitely give him a rematch. It was a good fight; I wouldn’t mind doing it again.”
Peterson Vs Khan II was announced for May 19th 2012, after being ordered by the WBA earlier that year. Unfortunately, the highly anticipated rematch was called off weeks before the fight after Peterson failed a drug test for a synthetic testosterone in March of 2012. Both fighters were upset about the news, with Khan calling Peterson a “cheat” and the Peterson camp insisting that the synthetic testosterone was given to him by a doctor for a medical condition. Nonetheless, the fight was cancelled and Peterson was stripped of his newly acquired WBA and IBF light welterweight titles he won from Khan in their first fight. Since then, both fighters have moved up to welterweight. Khan moved up in 2014 and has earned three unanimous decision victories at the new weight. Peterson moved up late last year and won a majority decision over Felix Diaz in his 147 lb. debut. With Khan looking to return to welterweight after his knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez at middleweight earlier this year and Peterson not having fought since October of 2015, this could be a good match up for both fighters in 2017.
Danny Garcia Rematch
Amir Khan and Danny Garcia first met in the ring on July 14th 2012, in a unification fight for Khan’s WBA and Garcia’s WBC light welterweight titles, at the Mandalay Bay, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was Khan’s comeback fight after his controversial split decision loss to Lamont Peterson eight months earlier and he was again listed as a huge favorite coming into this bout. It was the first defense of Garcia’s WBC light welterweight title; after beating Mexican legend and future hall of famer Erik Morales by unanimous decision to win the vacant title earlier that year. Amir Khan had hopes of moving up to welterweight and trying to secure a fight with Floyd Mayweather, JR. after unifying belts against Garcia, but those hopes were brought to an abrupt halt as Danny “Swift” Garcia stopped Khan in the fourth round.
Before the fight, Garcia had predicted that he would stop Khan in the third round and he wasn’t far off. Khan boxed well for the first two – and most of the third round. He had a huge speed advantage over Garcia and it showed. He was the more accurate boxer, landing quick combinations and getting out of the way as Garcia badly missed while trying to time Khan for a big shot. Then, near the end of the third round; “DSG” caught Khan with a hard counter left hook that sent Khan to the canvas. Khan barely got up, and his legs were clearly gone, but he was able to survive 11 more seconds until the end of the round. However, Khan wasn’t able to regain his legs in between rounds and came out looking very shaky to start the fourth.
He tried to fight back against Garcia’s onslaught of left hooks and straight rights, still throwing punches, but suffered another knockdown early in the round and struggled to get up again. At this point he was in survival mode, but failed to fight off the aggressive Garcia as he was again dropped and referee Kenny Bayless called stop to the fight at 2:28 of the fourth round. It was a huge upset as Garcia became the new unified light welterweight champion of the world.
There has been a lot of talk of a rematch between the two fighters in the four years since, but a second fight hasn’t come to fruition, yet. Garcia moved up to 147 pounds in August of 2015, making his debut with a 9th round TKO over Paulie Malignaggi. Garcia followed that performance up with a twelve round unanimous decision victory over Robert Guerrero to capture the vacant WBC welterweight title. Shortly before that fight took place, Khan was announced to be the mandatory challenger for the winner of the WBC belt. He remains the #1 ranked challenger to Garcia’s belt despite the loss to Canelo Alvarez at middleweight. This fight is very possible with both fighters being managed by Al Haymon, but it would be a huge risk to put Khan right back in the ring with the last man to stop him before Alvarez and risk being knocked out two fights in a row.
Kell Brook
Kell Brook Vs Amir Khan is a mega fight in the U.K. that fans have wanted to see for years. “The Special One” has spent most of his career fighting somewhat unknown fighters in the United Kingdom. He has only fought outside of the U.K. one time; when he crossed the pond to challenge a then undefeated Shawn Porter for his IBF welterweight title, which Brook won via majority decision. Brook has since returned to fighting in the U.K. and has made three successful defenses of his IBF title with the stoppages of Jo Jo Dan, Frankie Gavin, and Kevin Bizier. Both fighters have talked a lot about fighting each other in recent years, with Khan always maintaining that Brook hasn’t fought anyone and is looking for a payday.
But now that Brook holds a championship belt at 147 lbs. and has made a name for himself in the United States as well the United Kingdom, talks of a fight between the two British superstars have begun again. Late last year and earlier this year; both camps were in negotiations for a potential showdown this summer.
Unfortunately, the negotiations went south and the fight didn’t happen. Khan didn’t agree with Brook’s camp wanting a 50/50 purse split for the fight, claiming he is the bigger draw. Khan exploded on Twitter; telling Brook to “wake up and smell the coffee”, referring to Brook asking for a 50/50 purse split. He also accused Brook of ducking him and fighting Kevin Bizier instead. Brook’s promoter; Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, responded to Khan’s tweets saying that Khan’s lawyer had asked for an 80/20 split in favor of Khan in their negotiations.
Hearn also said that he would be willing to budge from the 50/50 split they previously asked for, saying via twitter “we will make this easy for you 60-40 in your favor (Kell is world champ) and you have it.” Brook himself also responded via Twitter, challenging Khan to a fight June 4th at Wembley Stadium. Nonetheless, the fight never materialized, Brook fought Kevin Bizier and Khan fought Canelo Alvarez. Now, Brook has followed a similar path of Khan Vs Canelo, by stepping up two weight divisions to challenge Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for his WBC and IBF middleweight championship belts. If Kell Brook returns to welterweight to defend his title after the Golovkin fight, which he has said he plans on doing and the two sides can somehow negotiate a fair money split between the two, this fight is still possible for 2017.
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