Khan fight ‘mystery man’ breaks silence

THE ‘mystery man’ at the centre of the latest controversy surrounding Amir Khan’s defeat by Lamont Peterson has revealed he will attend a hearing into the fight on January 18 and insists he has “nothing to hide”.

Mustafa Ameen hit the headlines last week when Khan questioned his ringside presence during the split decision loss in Washington DC that cost him his WBA and IBF light-welterweight titles.

The Bolton fighter — who has previously complained about referee Joe Cooper’s performance and questioned the judges’ scoring of the fight — used his Twitter account to post a series of images of Ameen, seen wearing a dark hat, and to draw attention to his movements around the judges’ table during the fight.

Khan’s promoter, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, identified the man as Ameen, who supposedly has ties to the IBF.

Ameen himself has finally broken his silence and said on Facebook: “So you are questioning if I did something to harm my Muslim brother (Khan)? May almighty Allah protect me from what you and the rest of you assert. Don’t make assumptions based on allegations.”

Ameen also gave an interview to boxingscene.com insisting he will keep his counsel until the scheduled IBF hearing — which could lead to the body ordering a rematch — has been held.

“I think it’s important to let the facts be known and I don’t want anybody crafting a defence based on something that someone wrote on the internet on what I said happened. I will defer any explanation telling them, telling anybody else that’s an interested party at the official hearing.

“I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m not running or ducking or anything.

“Without talking about the merits of what happened, I will just say that there’s a lot of misinformation. I’ve been called a lot of names over the past several days and that attacks my credibility, attacks my reputation that I worked very hard on in all my years in boxing.

“I’ll tell you that that part is definitely something I’m going to defend prior to the hearing.”

Ameen’s identity was initially unknown but he is in fact an experienced figure in the sport and is seemingly a close associate of American amateur heavyweight star Michael Hunter.

“There’s a lot of things that have been said, that have been put on the internet, which is why I’m going to refuse to fight my defence on the internet,” he said.

“It’s just unfair. I’m known in boxing circles, I’m not a secret. It’s unfair for them to slander me and undo all the things that I’ve worked hard for in terms of my reputation.

“I’m not a mystery man at all. That was a bunch of BS from the very beginning.”