By Luis Sandoval
After his victory over Amir Khan last December in front of his hometown of Washington DC, Lamont Peterson had plenty of options as to who his next opponent would be. For the first time in his career Peterson was in total control of his destiny and where he wanted his career to go.
A lucrative offer to rematch Amir Khan was countered by Top Rank as they presented Peterson with a big fight with Juan Manuel Marquez who was coming off an impressive performance against Manny Pacquiao. After weighing his options, Peterson decided to pursue the rematch with Khan and explained to BoxingScene.com that the decision wasn’t exactly a difficult one.
“It was an easy decision. I always knew that I wanted to fight Khan. And I knew the fans wanted to see us fight so that’s what I really based it on. Everything was pretty good on both [offers] but the fans wanted to see this one so that’s why I did it” revealed Peterson to BoxingScene.com.
While rematches are all about making adjustments and fine tuning any mistakes a fighter may have committed, Peterson doesn’t think his plan of attack this second time around will be much different.
“I don’t think it’s nothing I’ll do different but its things that I’ll do better. I’ll go just go to work on that. Just execute the game plan just like I did the first time” said Peterson with a smile.
One of the major factors in the first fight was the point deductions by referee Joseph Cooper. Khan was deducted 2 points during the fight for excessive pushing to which he and his team took issue with. Cooper also made sure Khan was not able to clinch as often as he has in other fights which created more action between both combatants.
Cooper will not be officiating this rematch which means the new referee may not enforce the same rules as Cooper did in Washington D.C. That could result in there being a totally different fight in the ring this time around but Peterson says he’s ready for whatever may happen.
“I’ll make the adjustments. If [the referee] calls it, he calls it. If he don’t, he don’t. At the end of the day you know I’ll make the adjustments in the fight and that’s all I’ll worry about” said Peterson.
Whatever type of fight Peterson sees in the ring this time around, one thing he knows will stay the same will be the outcome.
“Tune in May 19th. I’m going to say the fight is going to be better than the before. Watch it and it’ll be another big win for Team Peterson”.
You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter @Truewest007. You can also tune in to The Boxing Lab, Boxingscene’s official audio show every Tuesday from 6-8PM PST with hosts Ernest Gabion, Luis Sandoval, and Ryan Burton.
