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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - It’s getting close to 72 hours… and I still can’t decide how I feel.
Suffice to say, though, that the whole of Saturday’s show from Washington, D.C. has me conflicted.
First off, regardless of who actually won the fight-of-the-year-quality main event (Lamont Peterson) – and/or who actually deserved to (Amir Khan) – my forecast of a final showcase performance by Khan on the way to a super cash-out a division north was, shall we say, a bit off.
Had Michael Buffer spat "and still" rather than "and new" after what seemed an inordinate mathematical delay at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the handsome Brit with Pakistani tribal roots would still have had some serious image-reclamation work to do.
By any measure, his performance was disappointing.
And needless to say, even winning a chaotic scrap at 140 with a guy who’d gone 0-1-1 in his two biggest fights wouldn’t have been the most convincing evidence that Khan – even at 27-1 – was rightful heir to the P4P thrones now held by the Mayweathers and Pacquiaos at 147.
It was barely worthy, in fact, of court jesters Berto, Ortiz and Jones.
While he looked intermittently brilliant letting his hands go and befuddling Peterson with movement, there were far too many occasions when Khan was drawn into firefights and apparently flummoxed by his inability to render a less-skilled foe unconscious, or at least unwilling.
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Suffice to say, though, that the whole of Saturday’s show from Washington, D.C. has me conflicted.
First off, regardless of who actually won the fight-of-the-year-quality main event (Lamont Peterson) – and/or who actually deserved to (Amir Khan) – my forecast of a final showcase performance by Khan on the way to a super cash-out a division north was, shall we say, a bit off.
Had Michael Buffer spat "and still" rather than "and new" after what seemed an inordinate mathematical delay at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the handsome Brit with Pakistani tribal roots would still have had some serious image-reclamation work to do.
By any measure, his performance was disappointing.
And needless to say, even winning a chaotic scrap at 140 with a guy who’d gone 0-1-1 in his two biggest fights wouldn’t have been the most convincing evidence that Khan – even at 27-1 – was rightful heir to the P4P thrones now held by the Mayweathers and Pacquiaos at 147.
It was barely worthy, in fact, of court jesters Berto, Ortiz and Jones.
While he looked intermittently brilliant letting his hands go and befuddling Peterson with movement, there were far too many occasions when Khan was drawn into firefights and apparently flummoxed by his inability to render a less-skilled foe unconscious, or at least unwilling.
[Click Here To Read More]
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