Lamont Peterson's trainer is upset that the continuing controversy surrounding the fight is detracting from his charge's accomplishment.
Peterson's trainer unimpressed with continuing controversy
Lamont Peterson's trainer insists he was unaware of the 'mystery man' at ringside during the fight against Amir Khan, but is upset that the continuing controversy surrounding the fight is detracting from his charge's accomplishment in becoming world champion.
Barry Hunter believes Khan and his camp should have accepted the decision that saw Peterson claim the WBA and IBF light welterweight titles in Washington last month rather than create bad headlines for the sport.
Indeed, Hunter hinted that he believes it is just another ploy to force a re-match, with the Khan camp having already pushed for an investigation into the performance of referee Joe Cooper.
"Before this guy, this mystery man, I understood it was about the referee, it was about the judges, it was about a lot of other things... what's next?" Hunter said on
Sky Sports News.
"My thing is, we need to get back to boxing. It was a great night for boxing, it could have been fight of the year, and I'd just like to see this whole thing cleaned up and let us get back to what we do best - fighting."
Non-committal on rematch
However, Hunter was non-committal when asked whether his man would be willing to give Khan an instant rematch.
In the immediate aftermath of the fight Peterson had stated that he would offer the Briton a chance to regain his belts, but no such offer has since been forthcoming.
"We would love to dance with Amir again, I thought it was a great fight," Hunter continued. "But on the flipside of that we have to step back and see what's best for Lamont, his career and the future of his child.
"We've been in Amir's shoes before; we fought Victor Ortiz, a lot of people thought Lamont won that fight, there were some people that thought he lost that fight, but nevertheless we took the road and took our time to get back to the level that we thought we deserved in order to fight.
"So sure, somewhere down the line we would definitely love to do it again because it was such a great fight, but what we have to do is step back, take time out and try to let Lamont enjoy his accomplishment and then turn around and try to decide what the best business decision for Lamont.
"The only thing I can say is that this whole thing is a black mark on boxing and it totally, totally takes away from what Lamont accomplished that night."
