By William Mackay: IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan sees himself in the position where he can pick and choose his fights if he can get by tonight’s challenge Lamont Peterson in this HBO televised fight from Washington, DC.

Khan sees this fight as the beginning of his entry into the big time in the sport, although Peterson is clearly a couple steps down from Khan’s best opponent of his career Marcos Maidana. Boxing fans want to see Khan fight Maidana again but Khan and his promoters at Golden Boy have been not too keen on that idea, hence fights against the likes of Paul McCloskey, 34-year-old way past his prime Zab Judah and now the feather-fisted Peterson, who can’t punch.

Khan told thesun.co.uk “I can take my time now and pick my fights. Not a lot of people want to fight Peterson because he is a tough opponent and a real threat.”

Khan says he can take his time to pick his fights, but you can make an incredibly strong argument that Khan has already had his fights carefully picked out since his loss to Breidis Prescott. Fights against Dimitri Salita, Oisin Fagan, Zab Judah, and Paul McCloskey have all been pretty soft fights. The one good fighter Khan took on during the past three years was Marcos Maidana and he gave Khan major problems.

Will Khan be able to beat Peterson and move into the echelon of the sport tonight? I imagine Khan will win, but it’s going to be interesting to see whether Khan looks as good in this fight as Timothy Bradley did in easily beating Lamont Peterson two years ago in a one sided 12 round unanimous decision. Bradley had zero problems with Peterson, which kind of takes a lot of the interest out of tonight’s fight because Peterson has already been exposed by a guy that Khan is somehow convinced he thinks he can easily beat. I don’t understand it myself. If Khan thinks he can easily take care of Bradley, then why is Khan facing a guy in Peterson that Bradley beat with ease? It looks like cherry-picking to me, another record padding fight against a safe opponent.