By William Mackay: With the option to fight Jessie Vargas already given to him by Floyd Mayweather Jr. as part of the conditions to fighting him, IBF/WBA World Super light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s) appears set to ignore those conditions and instead take on his light hitting IBF number #1 mandatory challenger Lamont Peterson (29-1-1, 15 KO’s) on December 10th rather than face the hard punching Vargas or other hard sluggers like Lucas Matthysse, Marcos Maidana or Breidis Prescott.

Peterson is ranked high by the IBF, but fightnews has him ranked overall as the number #8 fighter in the division and I’m not even sure if he’s that good. I have him closer to the number 12 or 13 spot rather than being deserving of that rank. I think Vargas would beat him, as would Mike Alvarado, Danny Garcia, Kendall Holt, and Kaizer Mabuza. Peterson got a 10 round draw against Victor Ortiz last December. I saw the fight and had Ortiz winning easily by a minimum of two round but thought he won it by at least four rounds. He knocked Peterson down twice and didn’t really go at him hard the way he did against Andre Berto. HBO saw Ortiz beating Peterson and were all at a loss for words when Peterson got the draw. He was too weak against Ortiz, and will likely be the same against Khan. Terrible choice for an opponent, but a good one if you’re looking to avoid getting knocked out.

Those guys are all ranked below Peterson. The beauty of a fight against Peterson is that there’s really little risk involved because of his lack of punching power. The only risk for Khan is to avoid getting cut up from a headbutt, and make sure you don’t get too comfortable and get caught with one of Peterson’s slapping shots. However, it’s a bout that is self defeating because Khan is being matched light against Peterson with the objective to keep Khan winning so that he can move up and take on Mayweather next year or at some point in the near future.

However, if Mayweather sticks to his guns and keeps insisting that Khan fight Vargas, then Khan is wasting his time fighting the likes of Peterson unless he’s going to pull what he’s doing now with Timothy Bradley, who’s not interested in fighting Khan or anyone right now, and simply start saying he’s the best fighter in the division. If you’ve noticed, this is what Khan is now doing at 140 despite not having fought Bradley.

I guess if history is any guide, Khan may start doing that at 147 as well, saying he’s better than Mayweather, Victor Ortiz, Mike Jones but without actually fighting them. He’s doing that at 140, saying he’s cleaned out the division even though he’s not fought Bradley, Lucas Matthysse, [rematch with] Prescott, Erik Morales or Vargas.

You can’t say you’ve the best if there’s four or five guys you still haven’t fought. I know Prescott was beaten this past weekend by Paul McCloskey, but I don’t see that fight as a loss. I thought that was terrible hometown decision, and I have no dog in this hunt because I’m not Colombian like Prescott. I just thought he dominated McCloskey and saw it as really poor example of fighter getting a hometown decision in front of his fans.

Khan said this to ESPN: “I think it’s [Peterson] a good fight. Peterson is skillful, and a good fighter…This will probably be my last fight at 140.”

Khan may end up being back at light welterweight if things don’t pan out for him at welterweight. If Mayweather doesn’t fight him, which is how it seems to be playing out unless Khan stops being resistant to fighting Vargas, then Khan will likely have to settle for going after the WBA welterweight paper champion Vyacheslav Senchenko or one of the interim welterweight straps and then use that as his claim that he’s champion to fight mostly obscure guys on HBO. In other words, we could be seeing the making of another Andre Berto, where Khan fights mostly little known smaller guys without much talent or power for the next few years while milking the paper title and making money over the long haul rather than getting his cash fight against Mayweather. If Khan fights someone like Mayweather, Victor Ortiz, Mike Jones or Berto, I see him losing big time.