Lamont Peterson feels he can fight as high as middleweight

Lamont Peterson, 32, has been out of action since October 17th when he beat Felix Diaz and has been itching to fight. Although he is managed by Al Haymon, who has most of the big-name welterweights under his banner, Peterson is one of the few who doesn't have anything scheduled for the near future.

"I would like (to fight) as soon as possible at this point," Peterson told RingTV.com on Monday night. "I usually stay pretty busy but eight or nine months is a little too long for me. I'm getting a little older but eight or nine months is not ideal. If I could have it my way, I would fight every three or four months."

Whenever Peterson does return to the ring, he says it won't be at 140lbs where he's spent most of his career.

"I'm definitely going to try at a higher weight class," he said. "Probably a little above welterweight at this point. But if it's a big fight, a title fight or anything like that, I could do welterweight, but I prefer to be a little heavier than that. Definitely not 140- that's pretty much out the door at this point."

Peterson goes on to say that he's already starting to feel the weight drain once he gets into the mid 150s, so he thinks he could potentially even fight at middleweight.

"When I get down to mid 150s, I start to feel the weight drain and to try and force it to get down to '40 or even '47 is a push. So I think I can max it out at 160."

That would seem like a really big leap for a career junior welterweight, and Peterson isn't exactly known as a huge puncher. Just imagine him challenging someone like Gennady Golovkin for the middleweight title. Luckily for Peterson, Haymon has a large enough stable that it should just be a matter of time before his name appears on the docket. Until then, it's just a waiting game.