By John F. McKenna (McJack)
WBA/IBF light welterweight champion Amir “King” Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s) returns to the ring on December 10 to defend his titles against mandatory challenger Lamont Peterson (29-1-1, 15 KO’s) at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. The fight against Peterson will be the 24 year old Khan’s last at 140 pounds before he moves up to the more lucrative welterweight division.
Khan was quoted by Sky Sports News HD saying:
“There’s no-one else left to fight. I own two of the world titles and there’s no-one left to fight in the division. I’ve offered Timothy Bradley to fight and (Erik) Morales and they’ve turned them down. We were lucky to get Lamont Peterson for December 10.
“I think the next step will be 147 pounds, moving up to welterweight where there will be more challenges and bigger fights out there for me.”
A fight with stable mate welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao appears to be off the table, at least for the time being. That leaves a big money fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr as Khan’s only plausible option.
According to Khan initial talks have already taken place with the Mayweather camp. Amir is confident that he will defeat Floyd when and if they ever face each other in the ring. In the past Khan has openly questioned whether “Money” Mayweather will duck him as he alleges Floyd has ducked his famous stable mate and sometimes sparring partner Manny Pacquiao.
Khan believes that the best time to fight Mayweather would be about a year from now. By that time he will be 25 and will have continued to mature as a fighter. Five time trainer of the year Freddie Roach has gone on record as saying that within two years Amir will be the best pound for pound fighter in the world.
In his most recent fight in July Khan KO’d Zab Judah in the 5th round taking his IBF title in the process. Prior to the fight with Judah, Khan defeated power punching Argentinean Marcos Maidana by taking a hard fought decision in the US Boxing Writer’s Fight of the Year for 2010. In each of his fights Amir has appeared bigger, stronger and faster than in his prior fight.
It is always difficult to figure out what Floyd Mayweather Jr is going to do next. Floyd will turn 35 in February of 2012 and it is thought that at some point he will begin to slow down, if only by a fraction of a second. In the world of super fast fighters like Mayweather and Khan however all it takes is a fraction of a second to have an edge on your opponent.
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