by David P. Greisman
Now that Lamont Peterson has bounced back from his knockout loss to Lucas Matthysse, he wants to face the guy who beat Matthysse last year — Danny Garcia.
“He’s considered to be the No. 1 guy, and rightfully so,” Peterson told reporters after defeating Dierry Jean by unanimous decision on Saturday. “And I do want to be considered the best 140-pounder out there before I leave the weight class. I do want to move up to welterweight pretty soon. The sooner the better.”
Though Matthysse beat Peterson, and Garcia beat Matthysse, Peterson feels that he could defeat Garcia because of the old maxim of styles making fights.
“I said to a lot of people before I fought Matthysse that Matthysse would be a harder fight for me than Danny,” Peterson said. “Not saying that Matthysse was better than Danny or Danny was better than Matthysse. Stylistically I know — I’ve been boxing for 20 years, I know where my style fits best. I think with Danny it fits better than Matthysse.”
Peterson spoke highly of Garcia when asked about the lineal 140-pound champion’s strengths and weaknesses.
“I think the thing that he does well is he don’t do anything wrong,” Peterson said. “He really doesn’t have any weakness. He takes a good punch and he can give a good punch. He’s just an all-around solid fighter. I just have to be better than him at the things that he do.”
Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
