Peterson chooses Khan rematch over Marquez fight
A chance to lock himself into a Manny Pacquiao fight and take out a legend wasn't enough to steer Lamont Peterson away from righting what he believes was a wrong.
Peterson passed on a chance to possibly face Juan Manuel Marquez at Cowboys Stadium during the summer for a Las Vegas rematch against Amir Khan on May 19. The choice is interesting since Bob Arum has mentioned that the winner of the potential Peterson-Marquez fight could've faced Pacquiao in November if he gets by Tim Bradley in June.
Peterson beat Khan back in December but has dealt with cries from the Khan camp saying the win was less than legitimate. Supposedly judges were compromised by a mysterious character near the ring and Khan also had two late point deductions to give Peterson the split decision victory (110-115, 113-112, 113-112).
"We've been looking at this thing for awhile now. We took several offers and at the end of the day, it's the fight Lamont wanted, number one. Number two, it was a fight that at that time, it made better sense," Peterson's trainer/manager Barry Hunter told Maxboxing. "It went down to the wire, actually. [...] He gave me his reasoning as to why he would like to fight Amir and he gave me his reasons why the other fight was attractive. But ultimately, he decided to go this way and I backed him."
Golden Boy Promotions' Richard Schaefer was more than happy to steal Peterson's services away from Top Rank Promotions.
"Let [Bob] Arum talk," Schaefer said. "I work behind closed doors until I get the deal done, and then I announce it. Arum did a lot of talking. You can't believe everything Arum tells you."
Maxboxing's Steve Kim said there's no way the fight could be in Washington D.C. again because of all the nonsense surrounding the fight. Schaefer agreed.
"You have all of these dynamics unfold, it made for a challenging negotiation. This fight will be terrific because the first one was an action fight with controversy. Plus, we'll be instituting a no-hats-allowed policy for ringside at Mandalay Bay," said Schaefer.
