By John F. McKenna (McJack)
After a steady barrage of complaints by former WBA/IBF light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) over the various controversies surrounding his December 10th loss to new light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) both Khan and Golden Boy Promotions announced that they were withdrawing their appeal.
The question that needs to be asked of Amir Khan and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is why after bringing up what many boxing observers feel are legitimate issues surrounding Peterson’s victory over Khan, would they at the 11th hour withdraw their appeal? The official reason given by Golden Boy and Khan is that a couple of the key players in the controversial fight would not be present and that the Khan camp would not get a fair shake at the hearing.
I must admit that when I found out that neither referee Joe Cooper nor World Boxing Association (WBA) judging supervisor Michael Welsh would be present at the hearing I became suspicious. After all they were the key players in the controversy surrounding the fight. It would seem pointless to have a hearing without the key players being present.
The suspicion only grew when Schaefer and Khan who were coming up with new allegations on almost a weekly basis and appeared to be ready to see the fight through to it’s conclusion, appeared to roll over and play dead and simply withdraw their appeal.
In addition a substantial amount of money has to be put up by the complainant in an appeal.
Something just does not add up. More than likely we have not heard the entire story. Schaefer appeared confident just a week ago that his chances were good of having the Khan – Peterson fight declared a “no contest”. Now to suddenly withdraw the appeal because the governing bodies of the WBA and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) did not demand that the key players involved attend the hearing is indeed a strange turn of events.
Perhaps an arrangement has been reached which appeals to both the Khan and Peterson camps. It is a given that more news will surface as to the circumstances involving Golden Boy Promotions and Amir Khan suddenly dropping their appeal.
