By William Mackay: I’m really hoping that WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan steps it up in his next fight and takes on a quality fighter instead of going back to the pillow punchers like the ones he’s been facing since being knocked out by Breidis Prescott in 2008. Khan broke the pattern in his last fight by taking on and beating Marcos Maidana by a close 12 round decision. That was great that Khan took that fight, but of course he didn’t much choice. It was either take the fight or have his World Boxing Association title stripped from him.

But now that fight is out of the way, I’m hoping Khan continues to fight quality guys like Maidana. I don’t want to see Khan facing a guy like Lamont Peterson, ranked #6 by the WBA, because he’s not ranked as high as #2 rated Victor Ortiz and he doesn’t punch nearly as hard. Peterson is the one that’s being mentioned for Khan, but why would Khan face this guy when he’s ranked below Ortiz? Is Khan going back to cherry picking weak punchers? If Khan is going to take a lower ranked fighter, then why not #12 ranked Prescott?

He’s already got a nice 1st round TKO win over Khan, and would at least impress fans because he wouldn’t be shooting with blanks all night long and would have an excellent chance of knocking Khan out for a second time if he could catch up to Khan. Peterson shouldn’t be rewarded with the Khan fight based on a 10 round draw with the higher ranked Ortiz. That was one of the worst scored fights I’ve seen. Peterson had no business getting a draw out of the Ortiz fight, especially after he got knocked down twice.