By Ian Aldous: On Saturday December 10th, Lamont Peterson (29-1-1) will challenge Amir Khan (26-1) for his IBF and WBA World light-welterweight championships in Washington, D.C. Just over a week away from the fight, Lamont took some time to talk with me about his thoughts on the fight.

I’ve got to start with the obvious question! How is training going just over a week away from your huge World championship fight with Amir Khan?

LP “Training’s going well. We been getting in all the good work, the game plan is intact and my body’s feeling good, just waiting and counting down the days to get in the ring and go in there and do my thing.”

How do you feel about the fact that many observers see this fight as a stepping-stone for Amir to move up in weight and face Floyd Mayweather? It must seem somewhat disrespectful to a proven world-class fighter such as yourself that fans/experts are overlooking you?

LP “To me, I don’t worry about what people say, what they think. Regardless of what they think, me and Khan gotta get in the ring and he has to show me that he’s better than me. He do, not nobody else, not Freddie Roach, not any commentator, not any boxing expert or whatever you wanna call them or just a regular fan. They can’t fight for him, they words mean nothing in the ring and he has to show me that I’m a stepping stone, that he’s ready for Floyd or whoever the case may be. To me, none of that matters, long as I get my shot at the title, I couldn’t care less about what anybody else says.”

According to the latest issue of Boxing Monthly magazine, just before the fight was signed, you worked two rounds on the pads with Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. Freddie was complimentary of your power and ability to fight on the inside. It must be strange to hear praise like that coming from the man who’ll be working in the opposite corner on fight night?

LP “Well, it’s always good when somebody recognize, you know, your talent, your skills in this game. Regardless of if it’s Freddie Roach or just someone else in the gym just watching or observing. Yeah, we did do some mitt-work and it felt kinda awkward but, you know, it’s just mitt-work, I knew it meant nothing, Freddie wasn’t gonna get some pointers from me for him holding the mitts with me but at the end of the day, again, that’s just words, means nothing towards the fight. It’s all gonna become a test, if I got the power, the speed, I can have all the outside work in the world but if Khan don’t allow me to get on the inside, it means nothing. It’s good to hear him say it, but again it means nothing, not to let words distract me from what I need to do whether it’s good or bad. I just wanna show up and give my best effort.”

How surprised are you that Amir is happy to travel to your hometown to defend his titles? It’s quite refreshing to see it happen in this day and age.

LP “I was surprised at first, people kept asking the question and making a big deal of it, but to me, you know, he’s smart, he’s not a stranger to the game. He knows that his popularity, even though it’s in my hometown, it’s still gonna be a 50/50 crowd. He won’t feel like he’s fighting in someone’s backyard. You know he’s got a lot of followers, he has a lot of fans and they will travel the world to see him fight and there will be no difference come December 10th. They will be in the house, the whole UK will be in the house, it will be a battle of the crowds just like it will be a battle in the ring.”

You’ve shared the ring with proven World-class fighters, Timothy Bradley (L12) and Victor Ortiz (D10) in the last two years. Do you see Amir as a tougher test than both of those guys?

LP “We’ll see, it’s hard to gauge you know, every fighter is different. You can want to be considered a better fighter but for my style he might be the easier one of the three. I know for me, taller fighters or fighters that’s around my height are normally easier to fight than shorter fighters like Timothy. So I guess, you know again December 10th, we’ll see, as I see it right now I’m just looking at getting in the ring, I’ll say they all about the same, they all have their strengths and you know have their weaknesses too but I think all of them are about the same level.”

Khan Vs. Peterson will be shown live on HBO Sports in the U.S and live on Sky Sports in the UK.