British fighter Amir Khan lost his appeal Sunday over his controversial loss Dec. 10 to Lamont Peterson in Washington, DC, that cost him his IBF and WBA light-welterweight titles.
Khan was penalized two points by referee Joe Cooper for pushing — charges the Englishman denied.
But on Sunday, the International Boxing Federation said it was happy with the decision taken by the referee.
"We found no discrepancies that would affect the outcome or the result of the fight," IBF championships chairman Lindsay Tucker said, according to the BBC.
"We decided not to order an immediate rematch on the basis of the fact that in the rules, if the referee feels that it's a foul, then that's his call to take a point. He did warn Khan several times before he actually took the first point."
Khan said after the majority decision defeat that he felt robbed of a rightful triumph and has put his plans to move up to the welterweight ranks on hold until he can fight a rematch against the American.
Cooper deducted points from Khan for pushing in the seventh and 12th rounds; those proved the difference in a fight in which two judges saw Peterson a 113-112 winner and the third gave it to Khan 115-100.
"It was like I was in there against two people, the referee and Lamont," Khan said.
"I had to push him away because he was coming in so low with his head. There was nothing I could do. It was either push him away or get head-butted."
