Photo by Naoki Fukuda

RING junior welterweight champion Danny Garcia and IBF 140-pound beltholder Lamont Peterson would fight each other potentially at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, that is if Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya had his way.

“We have to see where we can make that fight,” said De La Hoya of Garcia (29-0, 17 knockouts) and Peterson (33-2-1, 17 KOs), who scored knockouts on the same card in their last fights in August at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“But Atlantic City obviously is a place where we would consider placing that fight. Garcia-Peterson is a fight that deserves to be made there but we’ll see what happens in their futures.”

Garcia, 26, of Philadelphia, scored three knockdowns en route to his second-round stoppage of Rod Salka in Brooklyn and Peterson, 30, of Washington, D.C., beat down Edgar Santana on the way to a 10th-round technical knockout.

Garcia’s bout against Salka represented his third appearance at Barclays Center in five fights, having earned both a fourth-round knockout of Erik Morales in October 2012 and a unanimous decision over Zab Judah in April 2013 in Brooklyn.

Prior to Salka, Garcia had won a disputed majority decision over Mauricio Herrera in Puerto Rico in March. Prior to Herrera, Garcia unanimously decisioned Lucas Matthysse, dropping him in the 11th round in September 2013 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Peterson is 6-1-1 with four stoppage wins since falling by unanimous decision to two-division titlist Tim Bradley as a 140-pounder in December 2009 and has had three of his past five bouts take place in Washington, D.C. with a fourth hosted in Atlantic City.

In May 2013, Peterson was knocked out for the first time in his career by Matthysse in a non-title bout at Boardwalk Hall, being dropped three times in the third-round stoppage. Peterson bounced back to defend his belt by unanimous decision against Dierry Jean in January in D.C.

Before facing Matthysse, Peterson had stopped former titleholder Kendall Holt in eight rounds in February 2013 after having dethroned Amir Khan by split decision in December 2011. The fights against Khan and Holt were also in D.C.

“There are no negotiations taking place whatsoever but that’s a fight that I would like to make,” said De La Hoya of Garcia and Peterson, each of whom is advised by Al Haymon. “I’m talking about it for a reason and if I am talking about it, then something is going to be made.”

The WBC’s mandatory challenger to Garcia is undefeated Russian Viktor Postol, who has accepted “a step-aside” agreement that permits Garcia to make a defense before facing him, according to Postol’s manager, Vadim Kornilov. The deal allows Postol and Garcia to take one fight within the next four months.

“Negotiations will hopefully start soon,” said De La Hoya. “That’s a fight that Danny deserves and that’s a fight that Peterson deserves and that’s a fight that the fans deserve.”

DE LA HOYA: SERGEY KOVALEV ‘IS A BEAST’

De La Hoya also reflected on last Saturday’s shutout unanimous decision by Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) over Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, which added Hopkins IBF and WBA belts to Kovalev’s WBO title.

“Kovalev is a beast, man. The fact that a 49-year-old two months shy of being 50 years old went the distance with a beast tells you everything there is to know about Bernard Hopkins,” said De La Hoya, who was stopped by a Hopkins left hand to the body in a middleweight championship bout in 2004.

“The funny part about this is that Hopkins will beat anybody and I say anybody, including the WBC [and RING] champion, Adonis Stevenson and including anybody at 168. Kovalev was a beast and you know what? He was a smart beast. The question is, is Hopkins going to fight again? I can’t answer for him. That’s a question that only he can answer.”

‘A STAR IS BORN’ IN SADAM ALI, SAYS DE LA HOYA

De La Hoya also had praise for welterweight Sadam Ali (21-0, 13 KOs), who dropped hard-hitting Luis Carlos Abregu (36-2, 29 KOs) once each in the sixth and final rounds of a ninth-round technical knockout on the Kovalev-Hopkins card.

Ali, 26, has scored knockouts in six of his past eight fights and was coming off a split-decision victory over Jeremy Bryan, whom he floored in the ninth round, in August.

But Abregu, 30, had represented a major step up for Ali, who ended the Argentine’s run of seven straight victories, six by knockout, since being unanimously decisioned by two-division titlist Tim Bradley in 2010.

Among Abregu’s victories during his run was a seventh-round stoppage against previously unbeaten prospect Thomas Dulorme in 2012. In April, Abregu ended a near one-year ring absence against the previously unbeaten Jean Carlos Prada, rising from a seventh-round knockdown to score a stoppage in the eighth before his countrymen in Argentina.

Abregu had been out of action action since April of last year due to an injured right hand, prior to Prada.

Ali was fighting only about a two-and-a-half-hour drive south from his hometown of Brooklyn, where has been a regular at the New York borough’s Barclays Center since it opened in 2012. Ali had fought there in three of his previous four fights before Abregu, his most recent appearance being against Bryan.

“A star is born with Ali. Brooklyn will now have the new champion for many years to come,” said De La Hoya. “We have big plans for Ali. He will be fighting sometime early next year.”