By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank president Bob Arum is interested in matching Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s) for a bout that would take place on March 30 at either the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California or the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to RingTV.
The problem that Arum may have in making this fight is that Peterson is already scheduled to be defending his IBF light welterweight title against Kendall Holt in early 2013, and it’s not going to be possible for Peterson to be able to make that fight and then be back in the ring by March 16th or 30th.
The only way that Peterson can make that date is if he blows off the fight against Holt, and opts to face Bradley instead. However, if Peterson does that then he could end up getting his International Boxing Federation 140 pound title stripped from him by the IBF unless he gives Holt some kind of step aside payment.
The Bradley fight will be easily the better paying fight for Peterson, so he may have to consider whether he wants to keep his IBF title or give step aside money to Holt. The Peterson vs. Bradley II fight will be televised on HBO. Peterson and Bradley fought back in December 2009, with Bradley easily beating Peterson by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision.
Bradley’s put on more muscle since then and he’s not as fast as he once was back in 2009. Peterson can definitely give Bradley a lot of problems if he’s able to fight like he did in beating Amir Khan last year in December. That was the last time that Peterson fought. He’s missed the entire year after testing positive for synthetic testosterone.
Bradley hasn’t fought since beating Manny Pacquiao by a controversial 12 round split decision last June. Few boxing fans thought that Bradley deserved that decision, and he didn’t help himself that he spent much of the time moving around the ring trying not to get hit rather than mixing it up with Pacquiao.
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