by David P. Greisman

Lamont Peterson still feels like he deserved the decision over Danny Garcia in their April 11 fight, a bout that ended with Garcia instead taking a close majority decision victory. And after watching the broadcast of their fight twice, Peterson doesn’t think he should’ve done anything different in the ring.

“The first time I looked at it, I just wanted to see how many rounds did he win. That’s what I was trying to figure out. Because a lot of people thought I won. I thought I won,” Peterson told BoxingScene.com on April 19. “I just wanted to watch and say, ‘Look, can I really give him the fight?’ And I say ‘No.’ ”

He wondered if people don’t understand the sport anymore, pointing as an example to the scoring of the first round, which all three judges gave to Garcia.

“If you think I lost that first round, then I don’t think you know boxing,” Peterson said. “I still out-landed him that round. I did pretty good moving around and jabbing. I landed the clean shots that round, too.

“Overall I thought I won the fight,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m satisfied with my performance.”

There are things he believes he could improve on — changing the way that he was slipping shots, for example, as well as bouncing on his feet less.

“It don’t take much to get away from a punch. Sometimes I was over-slipping and wasn’t able to counter as fast as I wanted to and the window of countering was gone,” Peterson said. “I need to tighten up on slipping what I can slip and shorten the distance of the slip so I could counter that. I was moving well. But sometimes when you’re bouncing … I was bouncing a little higher than I normally would. You’re up in the air, on your toes, it’s hard to get other shots off.”

He felt he adjusted well in the second half of the fight, when he turned on his offense and took over the action.

“I stopped slipping as much, started putting shots in-between,” Peterson said. “Even though I was coming forward I was still moving my head and was still deflecting shots and was able to get my shots in.”

But should he have thrown more in those early rounds when, despite Peterson’s approach on defense, the judges felt Garcia accomplished more on offense?

“I’m a pretty good judge. I’ve been around boxing for a while. If he hit me a little bit this round early on, then I know towards the end I’m going to have to throw more punches,” Peterson said. “I felt like he’s not hitting me, then there’s no need for me to get a higher output. He wasn’t landing.”

And Garcia’s offensive struggles didn’t surprise him.

“There’s certain things he can’t adjust to. He don’t really change the game plan. So if certain things don’t work out for him, it’s going to be a long night for him,” Peterson said. “When I moved, he really had no answers. He was doing the same thing. He never changed his punches. He never changed his pace. He never tried to press me harder, pick his pace up, see if I burn out or anything, or if I panic. He never did anything. He kept doing the same thing. I thought it would be, at his pace, a nice comfortable easy fight for me. I still feel that way now. I feel like if we fight again, it’ll be another easy night.”

Peterson hopes a sequel can be made.

“It was a good fight. The fans seem like they enjoyed the fight and a lot of people wanted a rematch,” he said. “I’ll definitely do it if it can be done.”

Both men made their names at 140. This bout was held at a contractual weight limit of 143 pounds. Both have spoken about moving up in weight. Peterson has no demands on where the fight will be held next.

“It wouldn’t matter what weight,” he said. “I’m pretty sure he’ll want to do it at welterweight.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com