Khan offers Obama ringside seats for world title fight with Paterson in Washington

By Sami Mokbel

Amir Khan rubber-stamped his next world title defence yesterday - and immediately offered US president Barack Obama a ringside seat.

The 24-year-old will put his WBA and IBF light welterweight titles on the line against Lamont Peterson in the American's home city of Washington DC.

Khan's sixth title defence will be the biggest boxing draw in USA's capital since Mike Tyson was stopped in the sixth round by Irishman Kevin McBride in June 2005 - the heavyweight legend’s final fight.

And the Bolton-born fighter, speaking from London's plush Mayfair Hotel is keen for the city's most famous resident to attend the clash at the Washington DC Convention centre on December 10.

'We will invite Obama, I’m sure he is a big boxing fan, said Khan. 'We’ve not done it yet because we didn’t know where the fight was going to be, but we will.'

Khan’s pending trip to Capitol Hill will not be the first time he has visited the American capital.

He met Hilary Clinton at the White House last month in an event honouring the contributions of Muslim American athletes.

'Hilary came over and said hello to me,' recalled Khan. 'We talked about boxing and she thanked me for being an ambassador for race relations. She thanked me for coming over from England and wished me all the best in my career.

'She then mentioned the same thing in her speech in front of about three four hundred people. I was quite shocked when she mentioned my name.'

Khan added: 'We were thinking about having the fight in Vegas or the UK but Lamont said he didn’t think the judging would be fair if he came to the UK.

'So I said: "I will fight you in your home town and I’ll beat you there." We will see if the judges really are the reason he loses the fight.

'The judges will favour him because he’s the home fighter. I have to beat him in a convincing style and that will make me train even harder.

'But It’s not like I’ve not gone into someone’s backyard before. I've fought in Vegas twice, I fought in Paulie Malignaggi in his home town.'

Khan’s camp hope to announce which UK channel will air the forthcoming bout against the 27-year-old by the end of the month.

Sky are one of the networks vying for the right to show the fight despite the an ongoing feud between the Khan’s entourage and the channel.

Amir Khan gains Lamont Peterson's respect for fighting in American's back yard as they set December date for fight

By Gareth A Davies

Khan will defend the World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation light-welterweight world titles at the Washington Convention Centre on Dec 10 against Peterson, a fighter who is equally happy to box or stand toe-to-toe.

“I give Amir a lot of credit for fighting me in my home town,” said Peterson, 27, who has lost just once in 31 contests, in London on Tuesday. “So many of the champions refuse to go to another guy’s back yard to fight.”

Richard Schaefer, Khan’s US promoter, said: “I asked the great Bernard Hopkins recently why he had wanted to fight against Jean Pascal in Pascal’s home town of Montréal when they fought — and Hopkins told me ‘because its gangster’ to do that’. Amir has plenty of ‘gangster’ about him, what I mean is, when he steps into the ring he is like a street fighter.”

"He has become the face of boxing in the United Kingdom and he has captured the attention of fans in the United States in a short space of time.”

Schaefer revealed that the event would be shown on HBO in the US, with the convention centre set up for a capacity audience of 12,000.

Source: telegraph.co.uk