Exclusive Q&A: D.C. commission chairman Irving on Khan-Peterson

RingTV.com conducted an exclusive Q&A with Washington, D.C. Boxing and Wrestling Commission Chairman Scottie Irving, who offered his thoughts on Lamont Peterson's upset split-decision victory over junior welterweight titleholder Amir Khan at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

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A volunteer with the commission who owns a construction company, Irving was ringside as Peterson (30-1-1, 15 knockouts) edged Khan (26-2, 18 KOs), winning 113-112 on the cards of judges George Hill of New Jersey and Valerie Dorsett of North Carolina, and losing 115-110 on that of Nelson Vazquez of Puerto Rico.

Khan was deducted one point each during the the seventh and 12th rounds by Virginia's Joe Cooper, who was chosen by the commission from a list of four judges provided by the IBF, according to the organization's Championships Chairman, Lindsay Tucker.

Khan was penalized for pushing Peterson's head down in the seventh, and for shoving Peterson away in the 12th. Others on the list of referees provided by the IBF included New Jersey's Eddie Cotton, Pennsylvania's Ernest Sharif and Michigan's Sam Williams.

The three judges were chosen from a list of eight names provided by the IBF.

Among the issues addressed by Irving in his first interview since the fight are the length of time it took for the scorecards to be delivered to the ring for the verdict to be announced by Michael Buffer, the notion that there was a scoring descrepancy on one of the official cards and the fouling calls against Khan.

RingTV.com: What are some of the things that you would like to clear up about Saturday night's Peterson-Khan fight?

Scottie Irving: One of the things that I would like to clarify is that, for me, the first round knockdown? There were two in the first round. I don't think that the second one should have been called a knockdown.

I think that it was more of a slip. From the commission's standpoint, that was a slip, and not a knockdown. At the final press conference on Wednesday, I said that we wanted to have a clean fight and a technically sound fight.

I said that I wanted them to listen to the referee. I stressed that point a lot. I just think that maybe Khan didn't really pay attention to that point that we were trying to stress at the commission about that.

I also had a conversation with Khan's trainer, Freddie Roach, about elbows and pushing. It was just a one-on-one conversation between us about that.

I had that conversation with Freddie when the guys went and they worked out on the Tuesday before the fight at the Kennedy Recreation Center.

I had that conversation after that workout because I had seen one or two things from Khan during that workout with some elbows from Khan.

After he throws his left hook, he likes to follow up with the elbow. So I had a conversation about that with Roach.