By Eddy Pronishev: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) is giving IBF/WBA light welterweight champion only two or three more days to decide whether he’ll fight him again. If not, then Khan says he’s going to move on and look for another opponent to fight.
Khan said on his twitter page “We waiting on Peterson. [He’s] Running scared [and] won’t sign the dolled line. Another few days; if he doesn’t sign, we move on and he’ll be stripped from [by] WBA. Keep the IBF; I don’t want it even if they gave it to me.”
Boy, Khan sure does sound like angry, jaded fighter, doesn’t he?
Khan needs to accept the fact that he’s not the top dog in anymore, he’s not a champion. I know it’s hard for ex-champions and ex-Olympians to accept being the guy without the power when they’re finally put in that position, but Khan unfortunately is going to have to accept it.
The 50-50 offer that Khan made to Peterson recently isn’t as good as what Peterson can potentially get for a fight against Manny Pacquiao, so he’s not going to just accept Khan’s offer until he knows what’s going to happen with Pacquiao. I doubt Peterson will even accept Khan’s offer if he doesn’t get the Pacquiao fight.
Khan will probably have to sweeten the offer by giving Peterson a bigger cut of the revenue plus agree to fight the rematch in Washington, DC. Neither of these things is unreasonable given that Peterson is the champion now and Khan merely the challenger. Khan has already ruled out fighting Peterson in Washington, DC again, and that’s kind of an odd thing to say. Maybe it hasn’t registered with Khan mentally yet that he’s not champion anymore. Yeah, as a champion he can say he won’t fight Peterson again in Washington, DC, but as a challenger, the guy has little choice but to take what’s offered to him. If he doesn’t like it then he can walk.
I don’t think Peterson really cares all that much if he gets stripped by the WBA. He’s got the IBF belt and there’s not a thing Khan do about it. Khan needs to rematch more than Peterson does, because Khan was exposed by Peterson in their last fight and shown to have zero ability to fight under pressure. Khan looked to be in the full panic mode from the 4th round on, fouling constantly and running to the point where the fight was unwatchable.