By Scott Gilfoid: I’m afraid the hype machine for IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s) is about to end tonight against his wily challenger Lamont Peterson (29-1-1, 15 KO’s) in their fight in Peterson’s home city of Washington DC.

Khan is so cocky at this point from the incredibly careful match-making from his promoters that he thinks he can actually go into Peterson’s home city and spank him in front of his own fans. This from a guy that was knocked out in one round by Breidis Prescott three years ago and has still never even attempted to avenge the loss.

This is the same Khan that was stumbling around in the last three rounds against Marcos Maidana last December and was practically saved from being knocked out by a referee that decided to break up action when Khan was getting pelted with shots against the ropes. I think for some fighters like Khan it really doesn’t take a whole for them to feel like they can walk on water. You feed them some soft fights, such as Paul McCloskey, Dmitri Salita, an ancient Zab Judah, and then they think they’re unbeatable and ready for Floyd Mayweather Jr.

It’s so sad. Khan is going to look silly when Peterson puts him on his backside and leaves him staring at the lights while the referee gives Khan the 10 count tonight. All of this will be captured on HBO tonight, and I doubt they’ll want to continue to waste money showing Khan’s fights after this destruction. HBO likes to guess who’s going to be a future star in the sport and they try and show their fights over and over again before they get to that point. It works sometimes with the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr.

But then you get an Andre Berto, who after three solid years of HBO cramming his fights down the American public’s throats, he’s still not a star despite the soft matchmaking. Now we got Khan as the new HBO darling with the same soft matchmaking, only this time I think Khan’s management misjudged Peterson’s talent by taking this fight. I see it going badly for Khan.

Instead of this being yet another one of Khan’s mismatches against weak-punching opponents, I see Peterson loading up and finding Khan’s glass chin and splintering it to a thousand pieces on HBO. It’s going to be sad because Khan has been blabbering about wanting to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. for what seems like forever but that’s not going to happen after Peterson gets through with him.