By Chris Robinson
This weekend WBA/IBF junior welterweight champion Amir Khan will defend his titles against the always-dangerous Lamont Peterson at Convention Center in his opponent’s native Washington, D.C. And while Peterson is essentially as proven of a challenger as you will find at 140 pounds, it is a fight that figures to be Khan’s to lose given his edge his speed and overall skill.
Khan has had a fun ride at 140 pounds but has hinted he will soon be moving up to the welterweight division. If successful against Peterson on Saturday night, the fighter’s trainer, Freddie Roach, would love to see him stick around and defend his belts one more time against a select name; former champion Brandon Rios.
This past weekend Rios was stripped of his WBA lightweight crown after he failed to make the 135-pound limit for his scheduled defense against Manchester’s John Murray on the televised undercard portion of the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito rematch on HBO pay-per-view. Rios would end up pushing forward with the fight, stopping the brave but outgunned Murray in the eleventh round, but now appears headed for a move up in weight.
With Rios looking to crash the party at 140 pounds, Roach would love to give him a welcoming gift in the form of a bout with Khan.
The reason is simple, as Rios and his stable mate Antonio Margarito were seen mocking Roach’s Parkinson’s disease in a video that aired a little over a year ago. Margarito was then days away from a bout with Roach’s prized pupil, Manny Pacquiao, and would end up suffering a horrific loss at the hands of the Filipino whirlwind.
Roach is hoping that Khan can exact the same kind or revenge upon Rios.
“Amir Khan will expose Brandon Rios at 140,” Roach stated in an exclusive interview with John McCormick at BoxingTalk.com. “I definitely want to see that fight. I want Amir to stay at 140 and beat Rios just for me. Brandon Rios made fun of me before with my Parkinson’s, and even though it was funny, I feel I was disrespected. Brandon is an exchange fighter. He doesn’t even know how to throw a feint, he has no game plan and you can tell.”
As far as Rios’ victory over Murray at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, Roach was far from impressed.
“The fight the other night was just two guys in a ring swinging at each other,” said Roach. “It was a good fight to watch. There was a lot of action with no skill. It seems as if his coach isn’t teaching him any skill. The same thing goes for Margarito; he follows Cotto all around the ring without cutting the ring off. I mean that is a fundamental skill in boxing. Amir Khan would destroy Brandon Rios. We’ll take that fight!”
