By Eric Thomas: It’s looking now like Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) will be the lucky fighter to get a fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in April or May 2012. Peterson, 27, has risen to the top of the field after an impressive win over IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan earlier this month.

The other opponents that Peterson is competing with for a fight against Pacquiao are Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto, and Timothy Bradley. Bob Arum and Pacquiao had wanted to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in early 2012, but that was made impossible with Mayweather’s 90 day jail sentence which will keep him out of circulation until April.

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, was Khan’s trainer for the Peterson fight and he liked what he saw of Peterson in that fight. Roach sees Peterson as the perfect opponent for Pacquiao.

Peterson showed exceptional ability in beating Khan despite being fouled continuously all throughout the fight. Peterson showed a lot of heart and courage in walking through Khan’s flurries to land shots to the body and head.
Peterson has an advantage over the guys looking to fight Pacquiao, as Cotto already lost to Pacquiao two years ago and didn’t look good in that fight. Bradley’s style of fighting, which involved a lot of wrestling on the inside and lunches with his head down, isn’t particularly exciting to watch. Bradley has yet to have an exciting fight in his career and that’s hurt him in building a fan base.

Marquez recently lost to Pacquiao in a close fight and it might be too early for Pacquiao and Marquez to get in the ring again. Besides that, Marquez is saying he doesn’t want to fight Pacquiao in Las Vegas again and wants more money than he got last time.

Peterson is a young hungry lion with better inside fighting skills compared to Pacquiao and has better size if not power. It will be a tough test for the Filipino to beat this guy because Pacquiao is starting to show signs of slowing down.

Khan and his promoters at Golden Boy are trying to force Peterson to give Khan a rematch, but that matters little to a Pacquiao-Peterson fight. If Peterson gets the Pacquiao fight, he can toss the IBF and WBA belts if the two sanctioning bodies side with Khan and try to force a rematch.

This has got to be burning Khan up, as he’s been talking about wanting to get a mega fight for almost two years now and here Peterson is about to beat him to the punch and fight boxing’s biggest star in Pacquiao, while Khan is left on the sidelines still complaining about his loss and waiting on the appeal made by his promoters.