By Keith Idec
Lamont Peterson isn’t at all bothered by the fact that he fared far worse against Lucas Matthysse than Danny Garcia.
Argentina’s Matthysse dominated Peterson in their May 2013 fight in Atlantic City, where Matthysse (36-3, 34 KOs, 1 NC) dropped Peterson three times on his way to recording a third-round technical knockout victory and became the only fighter to stop Peterson. In his following fight, Matthysse was out-boxed by Garcia, who was an underdog before winning their September 2013 bout in Las Vegas by unanimous decision.
“At the end of the day, you should know it makes no difference,” Peterson said Thursday on a conference call to discuss his April 11 fight against Garcia at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. “You can match it up many different ways, different fighters, and it never makes any sense. … Situations throughout boxing history show you that it makes no difference. It’s boxing. You get hit good, you get hurt and you can get knocked out. It’s just part of the game, something I have to accept and move on. And I have. And I’m just focused on Danny Garcia on April 11th.”
Peterson (33-2-1, 17 KOs), of Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia’s Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) will meet in a 12-round, non-title fight for which they can weigh in at a maximum of 143 pounds. It’ll be the main event of a NBC doubleheader that’ll also include a 12-round WBO middleweight title bout that’ll match WBO champion Andy Lee (34-2, 24 KOs) against former WBO title-holder Peter Quillin (31-0, 22 KOs).
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
