Khan sees past Peterson to Bradley, Mayweather, Mosley

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Amir Khan called it a "90 percent" chance that he would rise in weight to pursue welterweights the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Shane Mosley -- if, that is, Khan is successful in defending his jr. welterweight belts against Lamont Peterson on Saturday.

Khan (26-1, 18 knockouts) already has ruled out ever fighting friend and gym-mate Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs), who, like Khan, is trained by Freddie Roach.

"A lot of [who Khan faces next] depends on how Amir looks in this fight. We've got this fight in front of us right now, and it's hard to make any speculations without seeing how he looks in this fight," said Roach.

"If Amir looks really good in this fight and looks really great, and he has no trouble making weight, and he looks good right now, he could possibly go to 147."

Khan had no trouble indeed making weight, coming in a full pound under the limit for his fight against Peterson.

"I know that I'm already the best in this division, and I want to have one more fight against Tim Bradley in this division. But he doesn't want to fight me. So the reason I'm moving up to 147 after this fight is that there is hardly any opponents left, and it's very hard to get fights," said Khan.

"I think that the chance is like 90 percent at the moment. There are more challenges there for me at 147, and I know that that's going to drive me and to motivate me a little bit more."

Khan told Press Association Sport that Mayweather and Mosley are targets.

"I have ambitions and one of them is to fight Floyd Mayweather and beat him, but I have got Lamont Peterson to beat first. I know I have to focus on this one fight because one mistake can change your life and I don’t want that to happen."

Khan's lone defeat was a 54-second knockout at the hands of Breidis Prescott as a lightweight in September of 2008, but Khan told the Press Association Sport that he was looking beyond Prescott to bigger bouts. 

"Before [the Prescott fight,] I never trained that hard. I was only looking at the big names and the big fights. But you have to remember, there are fighters you have to take on first before you get those big fights," said Khan, who teamed with Roach and strength and conditioning guru Alex Ariza following the Prescott fight.

"I just didn’t take it seriously then. I can’t make that mistake again. This time I will be 100 percent serious. After Lamont, I will move up to fight at 147 pounds, and I will have one more fight at 147 and then fight Floyd. This time next year could be the big fight for me."