By Dan Ambrose: Number #1 ranked WBA/WBO light welterweight contender Victor Ortiz (28-2-1, 22 KO’s) has an important fight this Saturday night on the undercard of the Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana clash at the Mandalay Bay Resort & casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ortiz, still only 23, has won four straight fights since being stopped by Maidana last year in June and is looking to get a win over Lamont Peterson (28-1, 14 KO’s) to keep in line for a shot against either the Khan-Maidana winner or the Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander winner in January.

The southpaw Ortiz has big power and will have the speed and power advantage over the 26-year-old Peterson on Saturday. However, Ortiz is going to need to be prepared for a tough fight because Peterson won’t just fold and give up if Ortiz starts off well. Peterson stuck around for the full 12 rounds in a lopsided 12 round decision loss to Bradley last year in December. While Peterson continued to get dominated even into the later rounds of the fight, he never stopped coming forward and trying to make a fight of it with Bradley.

But unfortunately for Peterson, he didn’t have the boxing skills or the power needed to beat Bradley. He’ll likely have even more problems against Ortiz because he’s both bigger and stronger than Bradley and he’s a very good boxer as well. Peterson is going to be getting hit really hard in this fight and from an opposite angle that he’s used to getting hit. Ortiz has knockout power in both hands, as he showed in his last fight, a 3rd round blowout win over former World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight champion Vivian Harris on September 18th.