Lamont Peterson will lose IBF 140lb title tonight if Garcia beats him

By Boxing News - 04/11/2015 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (33-2-1, 17 KOs) will have his IBF title on the line tonight in his non-title fight against WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) in their fight on NBC on the Premier Boxing Champions at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

While it’s still officially a non-title fight, the 31-year-old Peterson can still lose his IBF title if he gets beaten by Garcia, according to Fight News.

Peterson’s belt will go vacant if he loses. Garcia cannot win it because they’re fighting at a catch-weight of 143 pounds, which is three pounds over the light welterweight 140 pound limit for the division.

It’s obviously not a great deal for Peterson to be potentially losing his IBF title in a fight where he won’t have the opportunity to snatch Garcia’s WBA and WBC titles. It wasn’t Peterson’s idea to have the fight a catch-weight fight. That came from Garcia’s side, as he’s moving up to welterweight, and he’s taking his time in doing so by moving very slowly to try and get used to the extra weight.

Peterson will be shaving his beard, according to Fightnews. The New York State Athletic Commission is having Peterson shave his long beard.

“I think I’m even more confident than him and I’ll get the victory Saturday night and that will be that,” Peterson said via Fightnews.com. “This can definitely push me to the next level in this boxing game. I think this will solidify me as an elite fighter.”

While many boxing fans see Peterson as being out of his class in fighting Garcia, Peterson feels very, very confident that he’ll have the skills to hand Garcia his first defeat of his career. For Peterson to do that, he’s going to need to take away Garcia’s big power shots. One way for Peterson to do that is for him to try and make it an inside war.

Garcia doesn’t fight well on the inside, and that’s why he tends to do a lot of holding when his opponents get in close. If Peterson can keep punching while Garcia grabs him, he could wear him down and pound a decision.

It’s still going to be difficult for Peterson because Garcia is likely going to be heavy tonight and looking like a junior middleweight in size. Garcia seem to punch better now that he’s moving up in weight. However, he only has huge power with his left hand. If Peterson takes that away like Zab Judah did in his fight against Garcia, then this fight will be up for grabs tonight.

This is Garcia’s second straight catch-weight fight. His last fight was at a catch-weight of 142 pounds in a fight against lightweight Rod Salka. Needless to say, Garcia is kind of taking a backwards approach to moving up in weight because normally fighters that are moving up in weight try and face guys from the division that they’re moving up to rather than dragging someone two divisions down like little Rod Salka, or fighting someone from their own division and having them agree to move up in weight. Garcia would have better results in getting used to the welterweight division by fighting someone from the welterweight division instead of pooling from divisions below it.

It is unclear how much longer Garcia will continue with the catch-weight fights to get accustomed to the welterweight division. But if he continues the catch-weights for another year, he’ll miss out on a lot of big fights. There obviously is some serious worry on Garcia and his trainer/father Angel Garcia’s part for them to be dragging their heels this long in moving up to 147.

At some point Garcia is going to need to stop dragging it out and simply take the plunge by fighting at the full weight of the welterweight division. As big as Garcia is, he’s fine in terms of size. He had the size to fight at welterweight over two years ago, as he’s a very big light welterweight. The size isn’t the problem for Garcia. His problems seems to be him just not ready to take the plunge.

The fighters at welterweight arguably a lot better than the ones at light welterweight, and if Garcia fails in this weight class, it won’t be due to him not being big enough or him not taking enough time getting acclimated to the division. If Garcia fails at welterweight it’ll be because of his not being talented enough to succeed. Given the way Garcia looked against Mauricio Herrera, it’s questionable whether Garcia will be able to find success at 147 if he fights the best. I’m sure Garcia can find success if he fights certain guys like Amir Khan, Devon Alexander, Brandon Rios and Tim Bradley. But fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr, Kell Brook, Keith Thurman and Manny Pacquiao will all likely have Garcia’s number no matter what tricks he has up his sleeves to try and beat them. He can clinch, low blow, run or whatever, I still see Garcia losing to all of them.



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