By William Mackay: Lamont Peterson (29-1-1, 15 KO’s) is the underdog going into his December 10th fight against IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s), but that doesn’t really mean much because Peterson has been proving people wrong for a long time.

Peterson is poised to get the biggest win of his career against Khan and then move onto a hopefully a fight against either Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr.

A win over Khan will open up a world of opportunities for the 27-year-old Peterson and set him up for life if he can get nice payday fight against either of those two fighters. For Khan, it will be a huge setback for him, although not the end of his career.

Khan is the type of fighter, when carefully matched, can put together enough wins to pick up one of the paper titles. It’ll take a while to come back from a loss to Peterson, but the 24-year-old Khan has a lot of time still.

The way for Peterson to beat Khan is the same way that Marcos Maidana and Breidis Prescott handled him. You’ve got to put immediately pressure on Khan, not let him get a break from being hit and continue to hit him when he invariably starts to grab and clinch.

You don’t let Khan clinch. He’ll try movement and when his opponents get in close, he’ll grab. As long as Peterson has a free hand, he’s allowed to hit Khan. You to hit him hard otherwise he’ll keep grabbing all night long. Peterson has to keep the pressure on, and obviously take some of Khan’s flurries. Khan can’t punch when he’s being pressure.

The only time Khan and punch is when he’s allowed to dictate the pace like he was in the Dmitry Salita, Paulie Malignaggi and Zab Judah fights. Those guys didn’t pressure Khan and force him to fight on the run. Khan’s legs turn to rubber when he’s forced to move a lot and that also lessens his power.

You’ll notice in the Maidana fight, Khan was fighting straight up in the last three rounds. He couldn’t bend his knees because his legs had turned to rubber from the exhaustion of running from Maidana the whole fight. Peterson has talked about wanting to box Khan. That’s the worst thing he can do. You don’t want to box with a taller guy like Khan, who will impress the judges with his flurries, even when most of the punches miss. Peterson has to knock Khan out to ensure he gets the win, and the way to do that is through pressure.