Peterson-Cayo on Friday; the winner becomes IBF mandatory for Khan

By Boxing News - 07/27/2011 - Comments

By Eric Thomas: This Friday’s International Boxing Federation light welterweight eliminator bout between Lamont Peterson (28-1-1, 14 KO’s) and Victor Cayo (26-1, 18 KO’s) will technically pick the mandatory challenger for Amir Khan’s IBF belt.

However, the chances are incredibly remote that Khan will choose to keep the IBF belt long enough fight either of these guys. There’s no point, because neither of them have much of a fan base whatsoever and Peterson was already soundly beaten by Timothy Bradley two years ago by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision.

It would make Khan look pretty silly facing Bradley’s leftovers just to hold onto a title that really has no relevance anymore other than being the strap that Khan won against a timid Zab Judah.

Peterson is a decent fighter but really hasn’t beaten anyone of note. His biggest fight of his career was against Victor Ortiz last year and Peterson was given a 10 round draw despite getting knocked down twice. I saw the fight and had a bored looking Ortiz winning by two rounds.

Peterson was lucky to catch Ortiz in between style changes, as he had been recently stopped by Marcos Maidana and looked to be trying to tinker with his fighting style by attempting to become a boxer instead of a slugger. Ortiz would have wiped the deck with Peterson if he had fought all out like he did against Andre Berto last April.

Cayo hasn’t much since being stopped by Maidana in the 6th round last year. Cayo showed in that fight that he can punch a little. That will serve him well in this fight against Peterson. The way to beat Peterson is to put pressure on him the way that Ortiz briefly did and the way that Bradley did and try to hurt him.

Cayo will need to really go after Peterson if he wants to win, because he can’t let Peterson box him. Peterson is too good to beat in a tactical fight. Cayo has to go head hunting to stun Peterson and put him on the deck the way Bradley and Ortiz did in their fights with Peterson.



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