On
Saturday night, Lamont Peterson captured the WBA and IBF versions of the junior
welterweight titles by dethroning Amir “King” Khan in a thrilling
back-and-forth battle at the D.C. Convention Center in the nation’s capital. It
was a watershed victory not only for Peterson, whose tale of enduring
homelessness as a child alongside his brother, Anthony, is well-known, but also
for the man who has help guide their lives in and out of the ring. For
trainer/manager Barry Hunter, this is his first world title.
With
a faded voice, Hunter told Maxboxing on Sunday afternoon, “It's a great moment
for me. It's like this is the Super Bowl of our sport and I've been coaching
for 32 years and to take one from a pup all the way up to a world championship,
not only get him there but win it- and we've been there more than once- I can't
describe it.”
Hunter
and his pupils have been at the doorstep before but like the Buffalo Bills of
the 1990s, they could never win the big one. Yeah, he was starting to feel a
bit like Marv Levy, admitting, “Had I not won that one, I would have felt just
like Marv because, keep in mind, I've been there with Sharmba Mitchell. I've
been there with Tony Thompson. I've been there with Lamont and I've been on the
cusp of it with Anthony. So yeah, it started to feel like, ‘God, what more do
you want from me? What is it that I'm not doing right?’ So I had to go back,
look at myself first, self-evaluate myself first. I had to make sure it wasn't
me giving the guys wrong instructions, teaching them wrong and then I had to
turn around and look at my surroundings and when I weighed the two, my
surroundings overweighed myself. And I started getting rid of things that I
didn't no longer need.”
Hunter
for years has been the head of Head Bangers Boxing Team (http://www.boxinggyms.com/headbangers.htm),
where, for years, he has trained local youth around the D.C. area. There are
men like Hunter all over inner cities across the country who put in their time
and accumulate sweat equity, not necessarily to produce the best pound-for-pound
boxers on the planet but to provide a male influence that is so often missing
in this socioeconomic climate. But Hunter is also a professional trainer, one
of many who are often defined by their wins and losses and how many champions
they help mold.
When
asked if this victory validated him in any way, Hunter answered, “In the eyes
of many fans of professional boxing but in my case it's simply this: I never,
ever, ever got into this thing for financial gain. It was always about helping
some youngsters. It was just a tool for me to go out and resurrect some of
these young people and it was just my way of giving back for some of the
mistakes that I made years ago. It just took a life of its own. God saw fit to
use me as his vessel and help get these kids and he gave me the tools to take
them even further.”
Coming
into Saturday night, Peterson was a 10-1 underdog. Hunter told anyone who would
listen that his charge had overcome much steeper odds in just coming off the
streets and becoming a productive citizen. The night started off with Peterson
getting knocked down and seemingly overwhelmed by Khan’s speed. Early on,
Peterson tried timing Khan with left hooks (even landing one when he was sent
to the canvas) but soon, he was playing the role of aggressor and started
attacking Khan’s long torso.
“We were
going to box Amir early on, which Lamont can do, and bring him war under the
sky,” explained Hunter, “but somewhere in that fight, he started to abandon his
jab and it was déjà vu of the [Timothy] Bradley fight and so when he came back
to the corner and I saw that he was in that mode, instantly, I made the
adjustment. I told him that Amir, his offense is his defense. He's very, very
good throwing volumes of punches coming forward but he has to separate from you
before he can do that. If you get within two feet or a foot of him, he has
difficultly. He'll fight to get back on the outside. He has deficiencies on his
inside craft and circle-motion. He's great at that, beautiful foot movement, but
he has problems going backwards. So all these things we exploited and Lamont
forced him into a fight he was not comfortable with. He's not used to not being
in control, so we had to put doubt in his mind and we did that.”
From
the outside, Khan was able to control the action; however, when the fight went
into a phone booth, he was raked by hard left hooks and uppercuts on the
inside. Peterson attacked the body with such ferocity and acumen that he should
be named an honorary Mexican.
But
coming down the stretch, this was anyone's fight and in the past, Peterson
never found another gear allowing him to grab that defining victory when the
stakes were the highest. Would he be this generation’s Oba Carr, a highly
skilled boxer, who could never quite get the brass ring? On this night, Hunter,
doing his best Knute Rockne, simply would not let his man capitulate. He went
to the whip and Willie Shoemaker couldn't have done a better job of jockeying.
“If
you look at the fight, I don't know what round it was but I remember distinctly
throwing his head back,” Hunter recalled. “He had his head down and it's a
cardinal sin in the gym. They've been reared up from being babies to show no
weakness, at no time. He dropped his head so that let me know that there was an
inner doubt in him. So it was my job at that point in time to let him know, ‘In
your mind, you are weak. You've trained for this fight all your life- not just
three months. This started a long time ago, so therefore, you have to remind
yourself, ‘What drove me to this point? Am I just satisfied with just getting
here and not winning the whole damn thing?’”
“So
I had to put that back in him and he responded.”
As
the final bell sounded, Hunter knew this was a close fight that could go either
way.
“I've said it before and I've said it since then; I asked [Lamont] to give me three
minutes in the last round. I need three minutes because I knew the fight was
very, very close. Hey, the man was champion and I'm with the old mentality that
you have to defeat him. You have to take it to him. So I knew in my eyes that
this fight could've been either way by one point or a draw and I don't think
anybody should have a problem with it, one way or the other.”
With
some assistance from referee Joe Cooper (who docked Khan twice for pushing),
Peterson was able to win a split decision by the scores of 113-112, twice, the
third card going to Khan with a score of 115-110. This will forever be debated
as a case of home cooking but regardless, this was a closely contested bout,
fought at a high level. Further vindication for Hunter comes from his decision
as a manager last year to eschew a $300,000 payday to face Khan in England.
Instead, they bypassed the offer, took on Victor Cayo in an IBF eliminator this
past summer and then faced Khan under these favorable conditions.
Patience
is a virtue, as they say.
“What
I do- and I always give God all the praise in the world for bringing me and
Lamont and his brother this far- is based on the love of God and instinct and
when they first called me about it, I knew it was more so a fight that they
pretty much looked at Amir to win and I figured if we go over to the U.K. - and
I know over there that the fans are rabid, they got some of the most dedicated
fans on the planet- I figured if Lamont didn't go over there and knock him out,
then we would lose and that would really push us back seeing how we lost to
Timothy Bradley. We never should have lost to him and the draw with Victor
Ortiz. So I told Lamont, ‘This don't feel right, brother. Of course, I want
your opinion but in my eyes, it's not right. You're better than that.’ And
they've always been taught not to be a prostitute for money because once you
compromise that, your integrity, you'll have nothing left.
“So
[Lamont] turned around; he thought about it. He said the same thing I said, ‘Listen,
I would fight him if it were for no purse. I would fight him for free but I
walk up them stairs like every other fighter and there's no guarantee I'm going
to walk out after we start the fight. So why is it that he should get this
enormous amount of money and you don't want to pay me nothing?’ He said, ‘I
would fight if you want me to but I wouldn't feel comfortable with it.’ I said,
‘Brilliant choice.’”
So
the question now is will we see Peterson-Khan II? According to Hunter, there is
no rematch clause.
“The
official statement from the Peterson side is simply this: how many young
fighters you know in Lamont's position have fought Timothy Bradley, have fought
Victor Ortiz, have fought Victor Cayo and then turn around and fight Amir Khan?
Lamont's never had an easy career. Now, we could've taken the path of some of
the other fighters coming to get a title, old fighters that's going out the
door or fighters that really shouldn't be licensed and get these guys titles.
But, nah, we lay our heart on the line; we went out there and we fought. So now
I think it's time for us to think about Lamont's future as far as his daughter
is concerned, Lamont's future as far as himself and his health. It's a
business. Now, we gotta start looking at it that way.”
While
many fans (and Khan and Golden Boy) may clamor for an immediate return bout,
Peterson and his team will explore all their possibilities. “We're going to let
this simmer a little bit, look at other options,” said Hunter, who basically
lost his voice on Saturday night. “Yeah,” said Hunter, with a fatigued laugh, “I
told him, ‘I can't fight this man for you. If I could, I would but I can fight
with you inside the ring, me on the outside and we are in tune with one
another. We're damn near unbeatable.’”
Hunter
spent much of the night at the local hospital with his fighter. He says it
still hasn't sunk in what has taken place. You could hear the satisfaction and weariness
in his fading voice but come Monday, he'll be back at the Joey Evans Gym (part
of the D.C. Department of Recreation, where the Head Bangers Boxing Team is
situated). It's not just what he does; it's who he is.
“Believe
it or not; it's a true story. It's kinda sad, actually. I took my family to
Florida one time in the 18 years that I've been coaching these boys- one
vacation.” (
See link below for part two of this article.)
CONTINUE READING PART TWO: Not A MERE CON - Amir Khan (Boxing Notes on the Fight) Steve Kim
