By Keith Idec
The last time Lamont Peterson fought at Barclays Center, he left the Brooklyn building with a controversial loss on his record.
As Peterson prepares for his welterweight title fight against Errol Spence Jr. at the same venue, his debatable defeat to Danny Garcia is the last thing on his mind. If the two-division champion upsets Spence on January 20, rematches with Spence and Garcia would be logical choices for fights later this year.
But if he never gets a second shot against Garcia, Peterson is fine with that, too. Once the initial frustration from his majority-decision defeat to Garcia in April 2015 subsided, Peterson hasn’t paid it much mind.
“I’m not really too much worried about it,” Peterson told BoxingScene.com. “It’s over and done with. You know, things like that happen, where they think you won or whatever the case may be. It’s in the past, so there’s nothing I can do. I can’t change it. No one can. So you just move on.”
Peterson has heard from many fight fans who thought he defeated Philadelphia’s Garcia in their 12-round welterweight bout, yet admits, “that really doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, it went in the history books as a loss and that’s what I’ve gotta accept.
“I don’t have anything to prove. I understand this boxing game is a business and things in life just don’t always go your way. Just get over it and move on.”
Peterson paid for his slow start against Garcia, who was undefeated at that time. One judge, Don Ackerman, scored their fight even (114-114), but the two other judges, Kevin Morgan and Steve Weisfeld, scored the fight by the same score, 115-113, for Garcia.
“That was a close fight, man,” Spence said. “I see it as either a draw or Lamont won. But if you see it as a draw, it could go either way, too. It was a close fight, man. I think if Lamont would’ve picked it up a little bit earlier, I think he would’ve won the fight. It was a close fight. I think it could’ve been a draw.”
Spence (22-0, 19 KOs), of DeSoto, Texas, will make the first defense of his IBF welterweight title against Peterson (35-3-1, 17 KOs), of Washington, D.C., in a fight Showtime will televise two weeks from Saturday night.
Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) is scheduled to return from nearly a one-year layoff February 17 in Las Vegas. The former WBC welterweight champ will battle Brandon Rios (34-3-1, 25 KOs), of Oxnard, California, in a 12-round welterweight fight Showtime will broadcast from Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.