By William Mackay: IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan gave his challenger this Saturday Lamont Peterson a weird compliment recently by saying to the liverpoolecho.co.uk “I definitely think this will be a tougher fight for me than Zab Judah was.” You think?

Judah was someone that was finished even before Khan selected him to fight. He had won a gift decision over Lucas Matthysse in November of last year, and then was given the chance to fight for the vacant IBF title, which he clearly deserve to fight for, against little known Kaizer Mabuza.

After getting hurt by Mabuza, Judah stopped him in the 7th. But let’s be real about this, Judah hasn’t looked good in many, many years dating back to probably 2005. And Khan is going to act like the Judah win was a big deal? Yes, Peterson will be a tougher fight than Judah, which is saying nothing at all because Judah wasn’t a tough fight.

Peterson is just another long line of light punchers for Khan to fight and look good against. He’s ranked No.1 by the International Boxing Federation, but fightnews has him ranked #10 in the division, which is two places higher than I have him ranked. I see Peterson as a No.12 ranked contender, behind Mike Alvarado, Ajose Olusegun, Timothy Bradley, Humberto Soto, Andriy Kotelnik, Marcos Maidana, Lucas Matthysse, Erik Morales, Danny Garcia…etc.

Peterson doesn’t have the power to dent Khan’s fragile chin and this fight is nothing more than a record padding fight for Khan.

Khan said “You have to remember that while Peterson might not be one of the biggest names, he’s one of the most dangerous opponents in the division.”

He’s about the #12th most dangerous fighter in the division, if you want to call that a dangerous. And there are guys that are ranked below him that have more power and who I would consider much more dangerous. The fact of the matter is Peterson isn’t dangerous. He’s a slapper. And while we’re on the subject of popularity, Khan isn’t much better known than Peterson is in the United States, so it’s kind of laughable for him to be sounding as if he’s coming down from up high when mentioning Peterson not being one of the biggest names.

I think he’s been on television in the United States many more times than Khan has, and I think he’s probably actually better known than Khan over in the U.S at least. If Khan is talking about the UK, then, yes, I can understand how Peterson would be a complete unknown over there. But the same goes for Khan’s Irish opponent Paul McCloskey over here. He was someone nobody in the U.S had heard of other than hardcore boxing fans, yet Khan fought him and pumped him up as if he was a great fighter.

Khan will beat Peterson on Saturday but that’s only because he’s another hand-picked opponent without much power.