Peterson-Matthysse in May in Atlantic City?

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said he is considering a junior welterweight match between IBF beltholder  Lamont Peterson, of Washington, D.C., and RING No. 1-rated 140-pounder Lucas Matthysse, of Argentina, for May 18 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

The match up between Peterson (31-1-1, 16 knockouts), who is coming off Friday night's eighth-round knockout of ex-beltholder Kendall Holt at The D.C. Armory in Peterson's home town of Washington, D.C., and Matthysse (33-2, 31 KOs), a winner of five straight all by knockout, would be paired with a clash featuring IBF welterweight titleholder Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KOs) against Englishman Kell Brook  (29-0, 19 KOs).

"We are looking potentially -- if we end up doing that fight and if that happens -- to see if we can do it from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. So we've been inquiring," said Schaefer, who had initially cited Washington, D.C., as a potential venue.

"I think that Atlantic City would be a perfect host for this, and I think that we have a great relationship with Caesars', and they would like it. We like to work with them, and I think that would be a perfect spot for the double-header, so we'll see if we can pull it off."

Peterson, 29, who signed with Golden Boy last month, scored knockdowns of Holt (28-6, 16 KOs) in the fourth and sixth rounds, ending a 14-month layoff following his disputed split-decision victory over Amir Khan that earned him the belt at the Washington Convention Center in December of 2011.

Matthysse, 30, is coming off last month's first-round stoppage Mike Dallas Jr., of Bakersfield, Calif., at The Joint at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Prior to facing Dallas, Matthysse had come up with stoppages in the fifth- and 10th-rounds over former WBC 130-pound and lightweight beltholder Humberto Soto in June and previously unbeaten Nigerian southpaw Olusegun Ajose in September.

Matthysse's run began after having sandwiched disputed decision losses to left-handers Zab Judah and Alexander in June of 2010 and June of 2011, respectively, around an eighth-round stoppage of southpaw DeMarcus Corley in January of 2011.

The bouts against Judah, a native of Brooklyn, and Alexander, who hails from St. Louis, Mo., were in Newark, N.J., and, St. Charles, Mo., lending Matthysse to attribute the setbacks to the notion that they were home town decisions.

It is for that reason, along with the fact that there was a great deal of controversy surrounding Peterson's triumph over Khan, that Schaefer desires a neutral venue for Peterson-Matthysse.

"There is a hold on the Verizon Center [in Washington, D.C.] for some other things, so it's actually taken. But I think that Matthysse, if he does it anyway, he might want to do it from more neutral grounds," said Schaefer.

"When he fought Devon Alexander and Zab Judah, you know he didn't have good experiences with home town decisions. So I don't think that's going to work for Washington."

Photo by Juan Marshall

Photo by Tom Hogan, Hogan Photo, Golden Boy Promotions

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com