By William Mackay: David Haye, a close friend of IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s), believes that Khan will have too much hand and foot speed for challenger Lamont Peterson (29-1-1, 15 KO’s) tonight in their clash at the Convention Center in Washington, DC.

Haye believes that with this win, Khan will move on and face Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2012. Haye sees Khan as the only fighter in boxing that can beat Mayweather at this time. Haye doesn’t feel that Manny Pacquiao can do it the way he’s looking now.

“I believe Khan is a league above him [Peterson] and will probably stop Peterson in the middle rounds,” Haye said to thesun.co.uk. “Khan is too fast, too accurate, too athletic, too mobile and is way too fast for Peterson. Peterson is a very slow fighter. He throws a lot of counter punches but doesn’t punch quick enough to counter Khan. So I believe Khan is going to look a million dollars and set up a huge mega-fight with Mayweather.”

I do agree with Haye on all those points. I think Khan is too fast for this guy and don’t feel that Peterson is the best guy that Khan could be fighting right now in the light welterweight division. I know that Khan is using the excuse of wanting to defend his International Boxing Federation title for facing Peterson, but I think there are better fighters than him that would give Khan all kinds of trouble, such as a rematch with Marcos Maidana, fights against Mike Alvarado, Lucas Matthysse, Ajose Olusegun, and Humberto Soto.

I’d pick anyone of those fighters to beat Peterson even on their worst day. But I can see the logic of Khan facing Peterson instead of those guys. Peterson doesn’t have much power and has limited offensive skills. But it’s sad that this fight is being used as a launching pad to a Mayweather fight.

Johnny Nelson of Sky Sports News said that a win over Peterson will make Khan a super star. How is that? Peterson was already whipped by Timothy Bradley two years ago in a 12 round shutout loss, and no one is calling Bradley a super star. All Khan is getting here with Peterson is one of Bradley’s left overs. Even Bradley, a light puncher, had Peterson down in the third round and hurt on another occasion.

Peterson is too slow to do much against Khan in this fight, and unlike Maidana, Peterson doesn’t have the power to make up for his lack of speed. Peterson is just a slow, weak contender who has fought a small handful of fighters, done poorly in most of those fights, and has been rewarded by the IBF with a #1 ranking based on 2nd and 3rd tier wins for the most part. Peterson’s best wins of his career are as follows: Victor Cayo and Lanardo Tyner. That’s it. All the other guys are unrecognizable names. Peterson received a gift 10 round draw against Victor Ortiz in December 2010, but few boxing fans who saw that fight felt that Peterson deserved the draw. I had Ortiz winning by four rounds, and that as him coasting. Peterson was down twice in the third round in the Ortiz fight and just looked frail.