By William Mackay: Lamont Peterson (29-1-1, 15 KO’s) defeated Victor Cayo (26-2, 18 KO’s) by a 12th round knockout tonight to become IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan’s International Boxing Federation mandatory challenger. Peterson didn’t how much power until the 12th when he hurt and took out a tired Cayo with a blizzard of punches to get the stoppage.

However, I wasn’t all that impressed with what I saw of Peterson and think he would be a weak option for Khan if he does decide to defend his IBF title against him before moving up in weight. I do think Peterson has more life in him than Zab Judah, who looked like he phoned in his performance against Khan last week.

But I think Khan could do much better if he were to face the winner of the Marcos Maidana vs. Roberto Guerrero or the Paul McCloskey vs. Breidis Prescott rather than taking on a weak puncher like Peterson. I mean I wouldn’t want to see Khan fight McCloskey again, but I don’t see McCloskey beating Prescott. I think Khan will do well if he faces Prescott, Guerrero or Maidana, but disappoint if he selects Peterson or Erik Morales.

We all pretty much know that Khan will likely select Morales, because he’s arguably the easiest of the bunch with the most popular name – at least he used to be in the past. Morales isn’t popular with younger boxing fans, who mainly only know him as the guy that lost to Maidana and got a puffed up eye in the process. Older boxing fans remember him, and that’s obviously why Khan will likely choose him.

Morales isn’t a threat, doesn’t hit hard and is someone that Khan can beat without a danger of being knocked out like there would be if he faced Maidana, Prescott or Guerrero. It’s pretty easy to predict the fights that Khan will take.

Peterson was already easily beaten by Timothy Bradley in the past, so the only thing that Khan could gain from fighting Peterson is to try and improve on the performance that Bradley put in. That would be difficult to do because Bradley totally shut out Peterson in a one-sided fight, and made it look easy.