Lamont Peterson gets his second chance to win a world title at 140 pounds when he faces Amir Khan this Saturday night in his hometown of Washington, DC, and the contender says he won't fail to finish Amir Khan if and when he hurts him.
Luke Thomas of MMA Nation spoke with Khan on Tuesday.
On whether or not the media crush is new to him:
"The Victor Ortiz fight was similar to this. Not as much. We had a local show here, about four or five years ago, and we really pushed for the media and we did a lot of different things. [With foreign press?] No, this is the most. But I've been close with Timothy Bradley and Victor Ortiz."
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On Khan vs Kotelnik and Malignaggi:
"To me, Malignaggi will never beat Khan. It's just a bad style matchup for Paul. All the things that Paulie does, Khan does better. At that point, he'll probably never win the fight. ... I really thought (Kotelnik) would come on at the end, but Khan showed that he's in tremendous shape, and he was focused the whole fight, and he showed me a lot that fight."
On why Maidana couldn't finish Khan:
"Khan survived well. He held, he did what he supposed to do, he moved. By that time Maidana seemed a little gassed, and was arm punching at the time."
On what he'd do differently in that situation:
"I would do the same exact thing he was doing, but I would try to fight with more energy. I would lay it all on the line. I won't try to hold and say maybe if I don't get him out of there, I've got these other rounds to worry about. No, I'm gonna try to end it right there."
On whether he's legitimately in his best shape:
"Yes, each camp I try to learn something, and I always do. So each camp will get better and better, hopefully. But this probably is the best I've felt going into a fight. Especially fight week where you're losing weight, and kinda tired. I still have a lot of energy, as if I just started my camp."