Khan accuses unidentified man of 'interference'

Claims scorecards were tampered with during his loss.

British boxer Amir Khan, who lost his WBA and IBF light-welterweight titles to American Lamont Peterson, has accused an unidentified man of 'interfering' with officials and the judges' scorecards during his defeat, according to BBC Sport.

Khan made the claims through Twitter by posting a number of images from last month's fight in Washington. Khan had earlier already conveyed his unhappiness with the performance of referee Joe Cooper, who deducted the boxer two points for pushing, and alleged scorecard irregularities. He lost the bout after the three judges scored the fight at 113-112, 113-112, 110-115 in favour of the local.

Now, expressing his dissatisfaction, the 25-year-old said the images highlighted his concerns about the appearance of a man at the ringside who also talked to the WBA supervisor Michael Welsh. His appeal against the controversial points decision to the hometown fighter Peterson will be held later this month.

Meanwhile, the WBA President Gilberto Mendoza told BBC Sport that he is examining Khan's allegations and will respond to the boxer's camp within the next 24 hours. The IBF told BBC Sport that 'with regards to the IBF master scorecard, we can assure that it has not been tampered with'.

Khan alleged that the unidentified man started to 'interfere' with Welsh in round six and continued to do so until the end of the fight. He also claimed that the man talked to Welsh and handled the scorecards, which were handed to the WBA supervisor at the end of each round, and that he admitted after the fight that his scorecards did not match the others.

Khan's trainer Freddie Roach expressed that he wanted to see Cooper suspended from officiating future world title fights. "I have no knowledge of any wrong-doing but it was unusual how long it took [for the scorecards to be tallied]," said Roach.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2012.