Amir disappointed as title fight is cancelled

LONDON: Pakistani born British boxer Amir Khan has spoken of his hurt and disappointment following the cancellation of his world light-welterweight title rematch against Lamont Peterson calling latter 'cheat' as American boxer failed drugs test.

It emerged this week that Peterson, who controversially beat Khan in December to capture the Bolton fighter's WBA and IBF titles, had tested positive for a banned steroid.

Talking to Sky Sports News, Khan said "First of all, I'm disappointed because I trained very hard for this fight. It was only 10 days away from the fight where my dad came knocking on my bedroom door and said to me 'look, Lamont Peterson's failed his drug test and the fight's no longer going to happen'."

He continued: "It was a big shock for me. My head was all over the place, I really, really wanted to win my titles back and have the fight. But the truth's come out now and it just proves that Lamont Peterson was a cheat really."

Asked about how he can get his belts back, Khan said: "The Nevada Commission have taken the licence off Lamont Peterson and they don't want him to fight in the next fight, so I think whoever I fight next they'll put the titles on the line or we still go through the process and we might get the titles back and the fight that we had last time will be a no-contest."

Khan, who revealed he would meet Golden Boy to discuss a potential fight in June or July, added: "I wanted this fight even when I heard he failed his drugs test. (Monitoring Desk)