I really believe the guy should get banned, honestly. He should get banned. If they don't ban him, then he's going to come back and he's going to do that again because he knows he's going to get away with it, and other fighters are going to do the same thing and they'll get away with it as well...I think he let his family down. Not only did he let his family down, but he let America down really, because he had the world title for America. You know, he was representing America and he let America down. He let Washington DC down. He let all those people down; he let all those fans down. He lost all that respect; a disgrace to the sport of boxing. Everyone is going to remember him as a drug user; a cheater," stated former jr. welterweight champion Amir Khan, who talked about the recent news of Lamont Peterson testing positive, forcing their highly-anticipated rematch to be cancelled. You don't want to miss what else he had to say. Check it out!
BT: Amir, obviously a lot has been going on in the past couple of days, so give me the scoop! We know the fight's off now, but how did we get to this point?
AK: Richard Schaefer, the head of Golden Boy Promotions, gave my father a call. I had got home from my morning run and I come into his room and my dad goes, "Amir, you won't believe it." I go, "What's up?" He goes, "You're going to be shocked." I go, "Why? What's up?" And you could tell he was shocked as well. And he goes, "Lamont's just been tested positive." And I just thought, "Wow!" You know, I knew that there was something wrong with that first fight. I knew, I mean, the world of boxing knows that performance that Lamont did against me in the first fight, no one's ever seen him fight like that before. You know, even though I was quite happy with my own performance, my performance got overshadowed by his performance because he was a lot stronger and stuff like that. I mean, I fought him at about 70-80% that fight. I knew I could do a lot better, but I think he just surprised me and everybody else with how well he did. It was a sign of relief, thinking "wow," but at the same time, I was thinking, you know, I was really angry thinking, "I don't think I'll be able to get my shot at revenge now." I trained so hard for this fight, you know. We went through everything with Freddie. I watched the whole fight over 50 times now. I know exactly what to do. I know the best he's got; he didn't see the best I've got and I knew exactly I was going to knock him out. I was promising everybody I was going to knock him out this fight, and that's what got me angry thinking I won't get my chance.
BT: Did you immediately know the ramifications of the positive test? Like, did you know that the fight was going to be off or were you still hoping it might push through just so you could still get that chance for revenge?
AK: I wanted to fight him anyway. My dad asked, "Do you still want to fight him?" I was like, "Of course I still want to fight," but it's not fair. If I agreed to fight him and we went ahead, then what's the point of having VADA and the drug testing? Everyone else would say, "Well if he's allowed to take testosterone and fight, why can't I take testosterone and fight?" So, you know, it's not fair. For health reasons and, you know, it's dangerous as well. When you have to go in there, you've got a refere in the fight to protect you. Now who's going to protect you from somebody having an unfair advantage, which is testosterone. He's like twice the man. I'm fighting two men in one. Again, so it's not really fair. Yeah, I know I can still beat him if he takes steroids, but I think the boxing world will say it's just unfair for him to get his payday after doing what he's done.
BT: Lamont basically came out and said he was taking these testosterone pellets prior to your first fight with him. I remember talking to you and Alex Ariza several months ago and you both mentioned to me that Peterson was a lot bigger and stronger than you had anticipated. I'm guessing that maybe that might explain it.
AK: You know what? If you look at the pictures of the weigh-ins, someone sent me something on Twitter, now if you look at the pictures of the weigh-ins from when he fought Bradley and when he fought Ortiz and when he fought me, the pictures from my fight weigh-in, he was really ripped and defined, and his muscles were huge. I mean, I thought he was quite skinny on the weigh-ins, like me myself, but if you look at the fight pictures, he was massive and he was strong. I was hitting him with everything I had. I swear, I was hitting him with everything I got. I knocked him down twice in the first round. He come back stronger. I was hurting him. I hurt him in the 9th round. He just kept coming back stronger. And that's what testosterone does for you. It makes you recover a lot quicker and gives you extra strength and power and endurance. It does everything for you. Now, he admitted he took that before the first fight. It's really unfortunate he did that without declaring it. If he declared it, then maybe we won't have a problem right now, but because he didn't declare it, you know, there's all these substances out there where you can mask whatever you're taking. I'm not saying he used some substances, but a lot of people and a lot of athletes do that out there and they don't get caught, but luckily Peterson did get caught because he got random tested at one of the press conference in LA. No one was expecting that. I wasn't expecting that myself. Now, he flew to England to have a press conference with myself in London, and the next day, we had to go to LA and that's where they turned up. I was fine; I was happy to drug test there. When he done it, obviously he had to do it, and that was the only result that came out positive. All the rest came out negative, so you can say a lot about that as well. But in that fight, he kept coming stronger, and stronger, and stronger. He didn't take a step back. Throughout the fight, he just kept getting strong. He finished the 12th round like he started the 1st round; not a lot of fighters do that.
BT: With him admitting that he was taking testosterone pellets prior to your first fight, I imagine you guys are going to go back and maybe try to overtun the result of that fight, correct?
AK: Yeah, if he admitted that he was on steroids before that fight, then the fight should be a No Contest, 100%. I mean, he didn't declare it. He should've declared it and because he didn't, he went in there unfairly and it's completely wrong. You know, for me to go through what I went through in that fight, I mean, a lot of people say it's the Fight of the Year and I still believe I won that fight and I'm sure 90% of the audience that watched that fight know that I won that fight as well, but for me to go through what I did; yes, it was a close fight, but I'm sure if he wasn't on that stuff, I would've knocked him out within the first 5 rounds of that fight.
BT: I'm sure you were looking forward to the rematch to prove to the world that the first fight was a fluke and..
AK: (Cutting in) Oh, of course, yeah. Revenge is sweet. You know, I would love to go back into that ring and get my belts back and prove to the world that I won and make it clear once and for all. I mean, I wanted to win it in style where if I won this fight, no one would ask for a third fight because they know I won fair and square.
BT: Do you feel a certain sense of satisfaction knowing that you were right to think that something was off about that first fight?
AK: I knew there was something strange the whole time. The whole fight, from the very first time we started negotiating with them, they didn't want to come to England, they didn't want to fight in Vegas, the only place they wanted to fight was in Washington. Now, we saw what happened with the referee, we saw what happened with the man in the hat, the judges. You could clealry see Mustafa Ameen was messing around with the scorecards, talking to the judges, interfering. Then you saw what happened after the fight, when the final bell rang, it took about 10 mintues for the scorecards to come, and then the first paper Michael Buffer got, they took that back from him and started adding and sorting the points out again. And the whole thing, and now especially this, with the testosterone added to it, to me, it just feels like a big scam. It just puts the cherry on top. I feel like justice has been done, but we'll find out next week on Tuesday when his appeal goes through and we see what kind of sentence he gets.
BT: So are you guys going to go ahead and file appeals with the IBF and the WBA to see about getting your titles back?
AK: You know, I think the IBF and the WBA, I think they themselves would like to know what's going on. As soon as they find out exactly what's going on, I'm sure they'll approach us as well, but my lawyers and my team are speaking to them and they're going to tell them, "Look, this is what happened. What are you guys willing to do?" But I really think that for my next fight, they'll put them titles up. They'll strip Lamont Peterson, which in my opinion they should do. Hopefully they say, "Listen Amir, they're your titles and we will give them back to you." But who knows what they're gonna do?
BT: Well, considering that he actually admitted to using the testosterone pellets prior to that fight, I don't know why they wouldn't want to do something.
AK: I don't know why he admitted that he took it before my fight. I mean, he admitted it. I don't know what was going on in his head. I mean, he messed up by saying that. I even got emails on paper saying that he took substances like that before the last fight in November. I really believe the guy should get banned, honestly. He should get banned. If they don't ban him, then he's going to come back and he's going to do that again because he knows he's going to get away with it, and other fighters are going to do the same thing and they'll get away with it as well. They'll say, "Oh, wait a minute. Lamont Peterson said the doctor gave him the medication, so maybe if I say that, I'll get away with it." I mean, you know what? Someone's life is at risk. You know, there's two fighters in there fighting. You're one punch from getting hurt really, really badly.
BT: Do you feel justified in the sense that, prior to this happening, a lot of people pointed their fingers at Freddie Roach fighters, like yourself and Manny, and accuse you of being on something?
AK: We train very, very hard and people think that we're on something. I've proven to everyone that Amir Khan is the cleanest fighter. Look, it's my opponent who wanted this and he's the one who tested positive. Now, I'm clean from day one. I've been Olympic tested from the age of 16, from amateur days, because I was fighting a high-class amateur level, so I'm used to having drug tests. Whatever medication I get, even if it's for cough medicine or whatever, I always go through the website or speak to my boxing doctor to make sure I'm allowed to take it. Lamont Peterson should have done the same thing. You know, he could've spoke to a doctor about every little thing. It just shows it was so blatant. Every athlete out there, when they get caught with a drug, always comes up with an excuse, saying, "It was given to me," or whatever excuse they come with. The thing is, he's been caught red-handed; fair and square. It happened on a day where he was traveling to a press conference, so maybe he couldn't get his masking agent the right way. So he dug his own grave. I didn't expect VADA to be there. I didn't think they were going to be there until they called us in the room. It just shows that in boxing, things happen, and now it's time to maybe put a stop to it. And those fighters that are on substances, they should put a stop to it because, you know, it don't look good for boxing and peoples' lives are at risk.
BT: Now that you've been through a situation like this, do you see yourself asking for more of these tests to be conducted in your future fights?
AK: Floyd Mayweather does the same thing. He fights all of his fights and wants his fighters to be tested. I agree with what Floyd does and, you know, I'm happy to do that as well.
BT: I think a lot of people are kind of surprised that a good guy like Lamont Peterson was the one to be popped. I mean, if he can be caught doing something, then just about anyone can be doing something.
AK: You know what? He's got that innocent personality and look, and everyone liked him. I mean, the quiet ones are the worst ones. He played it well, man. He was very quiet and he knew all this time he was cheating, and my life was at risk when I was in the ring with him and it would've been again for this fight, because that's what it does for you, it gives you extra power. He denied the first one [positive result in A sample] and then on the B sample one, he actually said, "Yeah, I did take something," and then blamed it on his doctor. Like I said, every drug user will have an excuse. I'm just waiting around to see what the Commission is going to do and I really think he should be punished for it, because it was hard for me to deal with everything and I went through a tough time, you know, dealing with the time without my titles, and listening to people saying I'm not this and I'm not that, and it could have broken my dream from the fight against Mayweather. I mean, it's my career. Boxing is my life and it would've destroyed my whole career really. My dreams would have been crushed.
BT: Not to mention, you basically just went through an entire training camp for no fight.
AK: Exactly! Mentally, I'm tired. Physically, my body is tired. I had to go through all this and he was probably knowing all that time that he's taking something and he's going to recover five times quicker than me because of all the substances. But look at me, I was doing it the hard way; blood and sweat.
BT: So did you find out from Schaefer earlier today that the fight was definitely off?
AK: I was still at the gym training. I even went to the gym today after we spoke earlier. Look, I'm not from America and I didn't know what the Nevada Commission would do. I thought, look, the fight still might be on, so I'm still going to train; I'm still going to work hard. I got the call after the training session and was told. I've got all the respect for the Nevada Commission and VADA for being honest and exposing him and bringing the truth out. It really means a lot to me and I just want to thank them for all the help because they're cleaning up the sport. It's just a shame because he was going to make a lot of money for this fight and he had to spoil it. I feel for his family. I think he let his family down. Not only did he let his family down, but he let America down really, because he had the world title for America. You know, he was representing America and he let America down. He let Washington DC down. He let all those people down; he let all those fans down. He lost all that respect; a disgrace to the sport of boxing. Everyone is going to remember him as a drug user; a cheater. It's true, man. He would've had a great legacy. People will forget about all of his fights. How long has he been on these substances? You don't know, man.
BT: So what's the game plan for you? Are you going to fight on June 30th now?
AK: Yeah, June 30th or early July. I'm working on a name with Golden Boy, looking at a few opponents.
BT: Are you going to stay at 140 or move up to 147?
AK: Yeah, I want one more at 140 because I think it's too soon for me to move up to 147. I need some time to, you know, work on strength and power and build up to that weight. I weighed in today at 146 after training. I mean, that's how hard I've been training. I've been so focused on this fight because I didn't want to make no mistakes. We was ready; we were more than ready. Even Freddie was saying, "I've never seen you look so, so good and so hungry." I mean, it brought the hunger back in me.
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