• Steve Bunce

Khan must shoulder blame for defeat

Joe Cooper sliced two points off Amir Khan for pushing © Getty Images

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Amir Khan can blame the referee all he likes for his defeat to Lamont Peterson - but here's the thing: Joe Cooper warned him dozens of times before he took away two points for pushing.

The big question in this fight is not why did Cooper punish Khan; it's why did Khan keep pushing Peterson after he had been told not to? If you know you're under scrutiny, why continue to do it right until the last round?

I don't really think he's on tremendously strong ground when attacking the referee. If the guy was out of his depth, why didn't they complain about him beforehand? After the event, it all rings a bit hollow.

However, let's not just blame Khan. His trainer Freddie Roach could have done a lot more - the guy gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and yet, at the start of the 12th round, he wasn't screaming: "Don't hold on to him!" Khan lost a point in that session - and with it, his belts.

For me, the seeds of defeat were sown at the rules meeting prior to the bout. I reckon the American camp told the referee and officials to watch Khan's holding and pushing, because we know Paulie Malignaggi and Zab Judah have complained about that in the past. Conversely, I don't think Khan's people were telling Cooper to watch Peterson's use of the head. They'll regret that now, and it's just one of the many ways they underestimated Peterson.

Why does Khan shove opponents? Because he doesn't want people to work on the inside against him - he wants to fight at distance with jabs, and you can't do that when someone's head is on your eyebrow. The pushing and shoving was not dangerous but it was illegal.

The Americans did their homework, they closed down the gaps, got as close as they could to Khan and tried to cut down his retreats. How many times did we see Khan having to run? He nearly fell over two or three times!

But the biggest worry for me is that after the first round he didn't really seem to be hurting Peterson. Part of that could be because his days at light-welterweight are well and truly over; perhaps the move to welterweight is overdue.

A rematch in Las Vegas looks likely for March 2012 © Getty Images

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For now, he has to stay at 140lbs because Peterson's got to give him a rematch. The challenger made relatively small money the other night; he's been making relatively small money all his life. The rematch will be in Vegas - forget this talk about the UK - and it will be a great fight that does big business on HBO. Khan will get revenge and the super-fights will be back on track.

The Mayweather showdown at the moment is massively derailed, but it's possible next year if he beats Peterson. It was only ever going to be in May or November - forget May, because Peterson's pencilled in for March. November's still there if he can take care of business beforehand. The big British fight is gone for the moment.

Cunning Carl
There's a big difference between what Khan did and what Carl Froch is doing ahead of his super-middleweight unification fight against Andre Ward at the weekend.

Carl's highlighting what this guy does: fight dirty. If Carl gets a cut early, he'll be able to say, "I told you so." Whereas Khan gets a referee who shouldn't be in the ring, and after the fight they scream blue murder; before the fight, they're silent.

I imagine Carl's promoter Eddie Hearn and trainer Robert McCracken will be down the throat of the referee at the rules meeting, and the first moment Ward uses his head or his elbow, Hearn will be smashing the canvas, putting pressure on the referee, and so will McCracken.

This is a huge task for Carl - he's got to perform out of his skin, get on him constantly and fight for the full 12 rounds. He's got to use his brain like he did with Arthur Abraham, and not just his heart like he did in the Mikkel Kessler fight. Kessler, by the way, thinks Froch wins and he is perfectly poised to judge having beaten Froch in a classic and lost to Ward.

Steve Bunce is co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption show. Click here for more details

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