Lamont Peterson plans on making it tough for Felix Diaz

By Boxing News - 10/12/2015 - Comments

peterson454By Allan Fox: Former IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (33-3-1, 17 KOs) will be back inside the ring this Saturday night against Felix Diaz Jr (17-0, 8 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC from the EagleBank Arena, in Fairfax, Virginia.

Peterson, 31, says he’s still fighting at 140 despite his good showing in his last fight against Danny Garcia, which took place at a catch-weight of 143 pounds last April. Peterson bulked up for that fight and looked like a genuine welterweight.

Peterson lost the fight by a 12 round majority decision in a fight that many boxing fans felt that Peterson should have won. The fact that Peterson didn’t officially move up to the 147lb division after that fight makes you wonder whether he didn’t have some problems in sparring some welterweights, because a move up in weight would make a lot of sense for him.

Peterson had his IBF light welterweight title stripped from him by the International Boxing Federation following his narrow defeat at the hands of Garcia. The IBF stripped Peterson anyway, even though he didn’t have his IBF title on the line for the fight.

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The 5’5” Diaz Jr won a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics for Dominican Republic. He also fought in the 2004 Olympics, but was eliminated by Serik Yeleuov. But at the pro level, #5 IBF Diaz Jr. has not looked like the same fighter he was in the Olympics. He’s very short, and he’s been lucky to beat limited fighters like Emmanuel Lartei Lartey and Adrian Granados.

The 31-year-old Diaz Jr did easily defeat Gabriel Bracero by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision in his last fight in April of this year. Diaz Jr knocked Bracero down in the 8th and 9th rounds of that contest.

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Bracero is the same guy that stopped Danny O’Connor in the 1st round last Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions, but Bracero and O’Connor aren’t major players in the welterweight division.

“I’m still a 140 pounder. Any fight that comes in at 140 pounds, I will take it,” Peterson said. “If there’s no title involved or anything like that, I would fight anyone at 147, 154, any opportunity that makes sense, I will take it. It’s going to get tough in there. Fighting me is like being thrown into cold water…it shocks you. I love action and my game plan is to go in there and give fans a fun fight and show them some drama. It’s a great night of boxing over all.”

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Peterson is ranked #4 by the IBF, so if he beats Diaz Jr, he should get pushed up a little higher. The current IBF 140lb champion is Argentinian Cesar Cuenca. That would be a tough fight for Peterson because Cuenca moves around a great deal, and is very hard to nail down.

Peterson obviously feels that he would have a better chance of winning a world title at 140 then he would at welterweight. He would have to deal with guys like Kell Brook and Keith Thurman if he moved up in weight, and those guys might have too much power for him to deal with.



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