Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Amir Khan 'mystery man' admits correcting 'errors' during title fight

Amir Khan 'mystery man' admits correcting 'errors' during title fight

• Mustafa Ameen: 'I noticed an error and a subsequent one'
• 'I assisted in correcting it without touching anything'

  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 January 2012 17.54 GMT
  • Article history
  • Mustafa Ameen in the ring with Lamont Peterson
    Mustafa Ameen, left in hat, in the ring with Lamont Peterson after the American's world title defeat of Amir Khan in Washington DC. Photograph: Nick Wass/AP

    The man at the centre of the Amir Khan row has admitted correcting "errors" made by the fight's scoring supervisor during the British fighter's world title defeat by Lamont Peterson in Washington DC last month.

    Mustafa Ameen, dubbed the "mystery man", was accused by Khan of interfering with judges' scorecards but Ameen claims he only pointed out mistakes made by Michael Welsh, who had said he was unwell. "I noticed one error and a subsequent error. I assisted him in correcting it without touching anything," Ameen told BBC Sport.

    Khan claims Ameen handled the scorecards, which were given to Welsh at the end of each round, and that Welsh admitted after the fight that his scorecards did not match the others.

    "I happened to look down, I believe at the end of the third round, I looked down and I saw Mr Welsh's score," Ameen said. "I saw, I believe, it could have been nine, nine and nine – which is 27 all day long.

    "There was an error. It might have been 26 or 28 but he was off by a point or two. I happened to look down and I said 'Michael, nine times three is 27'. He said 'oh my God' and corrected himself. And he said 'I'm not feeling well this evening, thank you very much.'"

    Khan's camp also questioned why Ameen was pictured with Peterson, who took Khan's WBA and IBF light-welterweight titles, in the ring after the fight.

    Ameen said he was assisting the 85-year-old IBF official Paul Artisst with the championship belt and insisted he would have done the same had Khan won.

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