Peterson to defend against Matthysse on May 18 in Atlantic City

According to Dan Rafael of .com, IBF Jr. champion Lamont Peterson will defend against tough on May 18th at Atlantic City’s . Showtime will televise

“Lamont called him out, so it shows you how confident he and (trainer/manager) Barry Hunter are,” said CEO Richard Schaefer. “Lamont had no problem fighting Matthysse, and right there in the ring after his last fight, he called him out. Lamont Peterson and Lucas Matthysse will fight anyone. Matthysse wanted to fight (unified titleholder) Danny Garcia, but he is busy with the fight with (on April 27), so we asked him about fighting Peterson. Matthysse said, ‘Line him up.’

“For Peterson to have a victory against one of the most avoided guys in boxing, that would be big and definitely make a big statement. The same goes for Lucas Matthysse. He’s been waiting for an opportunity to show he is ready to take on and win against an opponent like Lamont Peterson.”

Previously set for the card is the rescheduled co-feature between welterweight titlist (24-1, 13 KOs) of St. Louis and mandatory challenger (29-0, 19 KOs) of England. Alexander-Brook was originally supposed to take place Jan. 19 in Los Angeles, but when Brook injured his ankle in mid-December, the fight was postponed until Feb. 23. Then it was postponed again when Alexander suffered a right biceps injury.

“With Peterson and Matthysse and Alexander-Brook, this is championship boxing at the highest level,” Schaefer said. “You have two great matchups in two of the hottest weight classes, and if you asked 10 experts to pick the winners, you’d probably have half pick one guy and the other half pick the other guy.”

“Matthysse’s first choice was somewhere in Southern California,” Schaefer said. “As much as I can appreciate that, the fight belongs on the East Coast with Peterson being from Washington, D.C., so the site was a stumbling block. Mario really didn’t want to go again into an opponent’s hometown. It was like a psychological thing. Matthysse feels like he did enough to beat Devon and Zab and got the short end of the stick.

“I brought up Atlantic City, which is pretty close to Washington, D.C., and was able to convince Mario that this is neutral territory and I was able to convince Barry also to get out of Washington but go to a place not too far away so Lamont’s fans can come to the fight. Ultimately, they agreed (Thursday) night, and now I think you have one of the best fights you can make in the sport.”