By William Mackay: With Floyd Mayweather Jr. looming as the target for Amir Khan in a potential mega fight in 2013, IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson may have to really punish Khan in a one-sided fight in order to ensure he gets the win on May 19th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Khan is the bigger name, and when you have a big money fight like Khan-Mayweather just over the horizon, I can see Peterson getting jobbed if he merely beats Khan by a close 12 round decision. I can see Peterson getting a loss even if he appears to win by an 8 rounds to 4 score or even a 9 to 3. The Mayweather-Khan is too big and when you get fights like that hanging around in the future, funny things happen in the sport. I’ve lost count of all the times I’ve seen fighters end up on the losing end of a questionable decision when one of the fighters had a big money fight coming up in the near future. Does anyone remember the Oscar De La Hoya vs.

Felix Sturm fight in June 2004? De La Hoya took the Sturm fight as a warm-up for a huge money fight against IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins that was scheduled to take place three months later in September 2004. De La Hoya took a beating from Sturm and appeared to lose the fight, and yet was given a 12 round unanimous decision by the identical scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 115-113 on the three judges’ scorecards. So you see, when you got a big named fighter with a big money fight coming up in the near future, for some reason they seem to come out on top.

I think Peterson needs to be aware of what he might up against in this fight because if he doesn’t really beat Khan by a decisive 12 round decision, I can see Peterson losing the fight. It’s got to be a real beating just to be safe, and I’m not sure that Peterson is that much better than khan to where he can do that. I think Peterson is the better fighter as he showed last time out, but barely. If you take away Khan’s fouling, Peterson is a lot better, but which referee is going to stop Khan from shoving, pulling down on his opponents’ heads and putting them in headlocks? I can’t see a referee being picked out that will keep Khan from fouling if he decides to fight like he did last time.