Ameen: I'm innocent of any wrongdoing in Khan fight

Mustafa Ameen, whose mysterious behaviour ringside at the Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson WBA and IBF light welterweight world title bout provoked a furore from the Khan camp, told the BBC on Wednesday he had not been trying to influence the outcome. Instead Ameen - who is credentialled by the IBF - told them he was helping the supervisor Michael Welsh correct a mathematical error on his scorecard which he had noticed while sitting behind him at the December 10 fight in Washington DC. He insisted that he was not doing anything sinister as claimed by the Khan camp and added he was looking for an apology from the British boxer's camp. While Khan lost the fight and his titles his complaints afterwards struck a chord with the WBA who ordered a rematch based on what they saw as bad refereeing decisions. Referee Joe Cooper deducted points from Khan in the seventh and 12th rounds for pushing, a rare call, and did not credit Khan with what should have been a knockdown in the first round, according to the WBA. The sanctioning body said Cooper's moves impacted the outcome of the fight. Had Khan not been docked the point in the final round, judges scores would have made the fight a draw and Khan would have kept his titles. The WBA also pointed to an unauthorized person, Ameen, handling the official scoring slips used by judges during the bout then posing with Peterson for pictures after the fight. However, Ameen told the BBC that he was innocent of any wrongdoing and 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," he said. "I happened to look down, I believe at the end of the third round, I looked down and I saw Mr Welsh's score. "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'." Ameen said that his appearing alongside Peterson post fight was simply a case of him helping out a fellow IBF official, 85-year-old Paul Artiist, with the championship belt and had it been Khan who won he would have done the same.