By Michael Lieberman: Light hitting light welterweight contender Lamont Peterson (28-1-1, 14 KO’s) is looking like the next opponent for WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) on April 16th. If Khan defats Peterson, there’s talk of Khan facing the much smaller lightweight Juan Manuel Marquez. This is a fight that Khan was eager to make last year but Marquez wasn’t interested in the fight at that time. He is now. Marquez needs the bout with khan to get a good payday and also to show Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum that he’s capable of beating bigger fighters.

Arum has been asking for Marquez to prove himself against a welterweight like WBC champion Andre Berto (27-0, 21 KO’s), but perhaps Arum would be impressed with Marquez if he knocks out Khan. You would have to consider a Marquez-Khan fight a toss up at this point, because Khan was hurt badly in his last fight against Marcos Maidana and looked nothing special during much of the other action. If Marquez is able to hurt Khan like Maidana did, there’s a good chance that Marquez will finish Khan off unless there’s a referee that steps in to pry Marquez away from Khan while he’s trying to finish him off.

As for Khan’s fight in April, a number of arguably much more appealing opponents than Peterson, guys like Breidis Prescott, Kell Brook and Michael Katsidis have offered to take the fight with Khan, but they’ve all been dismissed by him. Khan wants a fighter to impress against in front of his British fans in April, and it seems as if Prescott, Brook and Katsidis won’t get the call. It’s hard to call Peterson an exciting fighter or one that’s really worthy of fighting for a title given that his ranking is #6 in the WBA light welterweight division, below Victor Ortiz.