Amir Khan wants to know: who was the ringside mystery man wearing the blue hat during last month's loss to Lamont Peterson?
Two-time welterweight beltholder Paul Williams is being considered for a bout with WBC junior middleweight titleholder Saul Alvarez in September.
Lem's latest: Caught on tape -- the Peterson-Khan ringside mystery man
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Evander Holyfield-Riddick Bowe II had "The Fan Man." Lamont Peterson-Amir Khan apparently has "The Mystery Man." Khan, whose split-decision loss to Peterson on Dece. 10 cost him the IBF and WBA junior welterweight belts, wants to know who the man was wearing a blue hat who appears to be distracting an official at ringside during the fight. "Who is this guy?" asks Khan. "And what was he doing?" On Thursday, Khan posted a series of pictures on Twitter showing what he says is an unidentified man "interfering" with WBA fight supervisor Michael Welsh as Welsh scored the fight, according to the Associated Press. Organizations assign their own official scorers to bouts as backup references, and WBA representative Welsh scored it a draw, while the IBF's rep Paul Artisst had it for Peterson. Peterson edged Khan, 113-112 on the cards of judges George Hill of New Jersey and Valerie Dorsett of North Carolina, and lost,115-110 on that of Nelson Vazquez of Puerto Rico. But in the newest development, Khan points out the man wearing the blue hat who sits down at ringside next to Welsh during the bout, and whom he alleges is seen leaning over Welsh several times, even appearing to pick up a scorecard on at least two occasions.
"From Round 6 all the way through to round 12, this guy starts to interfere with what Michael is doing,” tweeted Khan, indicating that the man's behavior is "strictly against the rules." BERNARD HOPKINS FINDS FIFTY BUCKS FOR A FAN A man who is notorious for his penny-pinching reputation, RING light heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins found reason recently to dig into his pockets and to literally give money away. The occasion? The former undisputed middleweight titlewinner, who turns 47 on January 15, spotted a homeless man on the streets of his native Philadelphia who was wearing a commemorative T-shirt depicting one of Hopkins' most historic victories. "The other day, this guy was at a farmer's market where the Amish people sell all of their goods. He was a homeless guy probably in his 50s. So he says, 'man, you're my favorite fighter, and I'm still wearing a shirt from your [Felix] Tito Trinidad fight,'" said Hopkins, referring to his 12th-round knockout triumph over Trinidad in September, 2001. "Then he says, 'man, you don't believe me?' So he starts taking his shirts off, because he's wearing, like, four layers of clothes. And people are like, 'hey, don't take your clothes off.' So he gets most of them off, and he's wearing a Tito Trinidad and Bernard Hopkins T-shirt. So I went into my pocket, and I give him $50.00. I mean, this was a hardcore Hopkins fan." 'TOO SHARP' VERSUS 'THE FILIPINO FLASH': A HALL OF FAME MATCHUP Before retiring with a mark of 44-5, with 28 knockouts in February of 2006, former two-division titleholder Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson, became the first African-American fighter to win a flyweight title. Recently elected into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, Johnson was known for being ducked by standout fighters of his day from 108 to 115 pounds, such as Johnny Tapia, Danny Romero, Humberto Gonzalez and Michael Carbajal, and ranked as high as No. 3 in the world, pound-for-pound. Johnson twice earned junior bantamweight belts -- the second by majority decision over former three-division titleholder Fernando Montiel, who was 27-0-1, with 21 knockouts, before losing to Johnson. Among Montiel's most recent losses was that which occurred via second-round stoppage in February of last year against Nonito Donaire, who will pursue a title in a third weight class when he makes his junior featherweight debut against Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. on Feb. 4. Following October's unanimous decision over WBO junior bantamweight beltholder Omar Narvaez in defense of his WBC and WBO belts at New York's Madison Square Garden, Donaire -- a former flyweight beltholder known to have a walking around weight of about 145 pounds -- informed RingTV.com that he wondered what it would be like to face a Johnson in his prime. "Well, you know, that's a fight that I would have loved to have when we were in the same division. Quite frankly, I knocked anybody out in that division. I'm already in the Hall of Fame, and I don't want to jeopardize that," said the 40-year-old Johnson. "But I hear that Nonito walks around at 145, 148, 150 pounds or something like that, give-or-take, and I'm right there around 154. So if Nonito Donaire walks around at that weight, and he still wants to make that fight, we could make that the weekend of June 27 at the Hall of Fame." Photo by Naoki Fukuda Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com |