By William Mackay: IBF/WBA Super World light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s) told Dan Rafael of ESPN that he’ll likely be defending his titles on December 10th against his IBF mandatory challenger Lamont Peterson (29-1, 15 KO’s).

Rafael calls this a “Solid fight.” Yes, it’s solid if you’re looking for a weak puncher for Khan, but it’s not solid if you’re looking for someone that actually has a chance to beat Khan. This actually is a worse choice than Khan’s fight against an aging Zab Judah last July. Boxing fans want to see Khan fight Marcos Maidana again and/or Breidis Prescott.

Fans also want to see Khan fight Timothy Bradley, but I don’t blame Khan for that fight not being made because Bradley is going through promotional difficulties at the moment and isn’t in the position to fight Khan right now. But Prescott and Maidana are more than ready to take on Khan, and it would be a much better fight than seeing Khan destroy a weak puncher like Peterson.

The only way Khan won’t fight Peterson in December is if Erik Morales decides to fight Khan. For some reason, Khan and his promoters from Golden Boy Promotions really want a Khan-Morales fight. Khan wants to add Morales’s name to his resume, even though it’s meaningless at this point because Morales is only a shadow of the fighter he was in his prime.

In his prime, Morales would have destroyed Khan, probably even giving away 20 pounds in weight. There’s no comparison to a prime Morales and Khan. Morales was simply a much, much better fighter than Khan can ever hope to be. But this is the only way Khan won’t be fighting Peterson next, if Morales decides to fight him. It doesn’t like that’s going to happen because Morales already said no to that fight for the time being.

Morales was supposed to be fighting Lucas Matthysse on the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Victor Ortiz undercard on September 17th. Matthysse pulled out of the fight today because of an illness, leaving Morales without an opponent. There’s speculation that Britain’s Anthony Crolla (21-2, 9 KO’s) could step in to take the fight against Morales. However, Crolla’s a lightweight, not a light welterweight, and he’s already got a scheduled fight for the undercard of the Mayweather-Ortiz fight card against Juan Montiel. Perhaps that fight can be rescheduled so that Morales can fight for the vacant WBC light welterweight title. It would be a sad fight with a title being on the line, as I don’t think either of these guys deserve to be fighting for a title but it’s a possibility.