Danny Garcia's radio silence was somewhat broken this weekend when Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya said that he will be pushing for Garcia to face Lamont Peterson in early 2015.
The two fighters both won bouts on the same card in August at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, but have been inactive since then. Garcia quickly knocked out Rod Salka, while Lamont Peterson earned a stoppage victory against a similarly mismatched Edgar Santana. The two being on the same card seemed to line up a logical unification fight later in 2014.
That never happened though, even though Garcia's mandatory challenger Viktor Postol was paid off to let Garcia seek a higher-profile bout. Garcia has said he sees no need to face Lucas Matthysse again after upsetting him in 2013, and he and Adrien Broner are friends and opposed to fighting at this point.
Aside from a jump to welterweight for Garcia, the only bigger fight than Postol appeared to be Peterson, who holds the IBF title.
"The fight that I want to make is Garcia-Peterson," De La Hoya said. "That's the next fight that I want to make," said De La Hoya. "I think that's a great fight for both guys. We just want it for the first quarter of next year. Right now, there are a lot of loose ends that we have to tie up."
Many fans might prefer to see a Garcia rematch with Matthysse, who because of his knockout prowess is one of the most popular fighters in the sport. Matthysse appears to have given up on the fight for now though, expressing interest in chasing the WBO belt rather than remain inactive for a year waiting for Garcia.
"In December at the [WBC] convention Garcia's team didn't want to fight me until I became the mandatory so I would have to wait a year or so," Matthysse said. "I'm number two in the rankings but it takes time. It is the fight I want but to sit and just wait, let's go to the other side where we don't have to wait that long and have the chance to fight for a world title."
[Ring TV]
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