Appeal Withdrawn

last night it was revealed that former light welterweight champion Amir Khan, and his Golden Boy promotion team, decided to withdraw their appeal with the IBF for a rematch of Khan’s December 10th clash with Lamont Peterson.

The IBF was due to hear Khan’s appeal this afternoon (US time) however Golden Boy withdraw their request, mainly due to the fact that WBA supervisor Michael Welsh and referee Joe Cooper were not to attend. These two individuals were key people to be involved with the hearing. The original appeal was lodged because Team Khan felt the fight was poorly officiated and there were scorecard discrepancies.

Last night Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com “We’ve been reviewing everything, including the latest paperwork which we received from the IBF, and I sat down with Team Khan and we realized that based on the makeup of that hearing that it would have been a very one-sided story,”

“Since not everyone that was in Washington — the IBF officials and supervisor — would have been in attendance there would not have been a complete story told,” he said. “You don’t go to hear a partial side of the story, so we decided to withdraw the appeal and focus our time on Amir’s next fight. We will be meeting with HBO (on Wednesday) and have something to announce soon as it relates to a date and site.”

A rematch with Lamont Peterson is still at the top of their list, when it comes to Khan’s next fight, however it may be far more difficult without the IBF officially ordering it. Khan wants this rematch so bad, that he has ordered Schaefer to offer Peterson a 50-50 deal. This is seen as a very surprising decision as Khan is widely seen as the fighter generating the bulk of revenue from a rematch, due to his contracts with British broadcaster Sky Sports, and US broadcaster HBO. Peterson has already turned down an offer of $1million to fight Amir again, Peterson’s previous highest earnings was $650,000 from the December 10th fight.

“We hope we can begin the negotiation with Team Peterson right away,” Schaefer said. “We want these negotiations to be straightforward and respectful. In that regard, Amir really wants that rematch and would agree to split the worldwide revenue 50-50.”

“It would be a much-anticipated rematch and HBO is obviously interested in airing that rematch. We want to make sure it is financially and professionally satisfying to Lamont to get this rematch done.”