Lamont Peterson: “There Are a Lot of Fighters Who Are Cheating”

Lamont Peterson is one of a growing list of prizefighters who believe illegal performance enhancement drugs have reached epidemic proportions.

“We need to clean up the sport,” said Peterson.

The Washington D.C.-based Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KOs) along with United Kingdom’s Amir “King” Khan (26-2, 18 KOs) attended a press conference on Monday in Los Angeles at the Grammy Museum. Both will be re-engaging on May 19, but this time at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Peterson doesn’t mind that Khan’s followers and boxing fans in general have doubts about the validity of his victory last December. He doesn’t care if controversy erupted over the poor refereeing and judging. Bantering over the Internet doesn’t bother him a bit.

“I just want a fair fight,” Peterson, 28, said. “I’m a clean fighter.”

While at the Golden Boy Promotions and Headbangers Promotion press conference Peterson said he accepted the rematch on the condition that a drug test for PEDs be included. Khan’s team and Golden Boy readily accepted.

“There are a lot of fighters who are cheating now and getting away with it,” said Peterson, adding “including some champions.”

Olympic-style testing that includes random blood tests will be imposed on both fighters leading up to the fight.

Urine testing as Nevada State Athletic Commission uses for its championship fights can detect steroid use and prohibited drug use such as marijuana and cocaine. But it’s not enough in Peterson’s opinion.

“Urine testing can’t detect the new kind of drugs that are being used by a lot of people,” Peterson said adding that many PEDs such as HGH and others are not discovered under simple urine testing.

Peterson, who beat Khan for the junior welterweight titles last December, will be training in D.C. Khan will be traveling to the Philippines for his training with Freddie Roach who also will be preparing Manny Pacquiao.

Khan

The British speedster prefers training in the Philippines for a variety of reasons.

“There’s tougher sparring over there. They don’t care who you are and I don’t know who they are,” said Khan, 25, who will later return to Wild Card as the fight date nears. “It’s also very isolated and there’s nothing to do. I look forward each day to going to the gym.

There are no distractions whatsoever.”

Khan believes that the first encounter with Peterson taught him a valuable lesson about “fighting inside” and that its one of the primary concerns trainer Roach will focus on.

“We have to go back to basics. He’s going to come at me all the way,” said Khan about Peterson. “We know Lamont Peterson is a good fighter. I’m expecting him to attack inside again.”

Oscar De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy, said expectations have heated up because of their first encounter that is considered one of the top fights of 2011.

“It’s guaranteed to be another thriller,” De La Hoya said adding that WBO junior lightweight titleholder Adrien Broner will also be on the fight card.

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