by David P. Greisman

Lamont Peterson and Adrien Broner shared an arena in February, and they are once again sharing a division now that both have moved from junior welterweight to welterweight. But they will not be sharing a ring — unless it’s in sparring.

“It’s a tight friendship,” Peterson told BoxingScene.com, reiterating why a fight between him and Broner will not happen. “We train around each other a lot. His coach is in my corner when I fight. My coach is in his corner when he fights.”

They’ve known each other for quite some time.

“I remember him from the amateur days when he was really, really young. He was maybe 9 or 10 years old. I was in my teens,” said Peterson, who is now 33 while Broner is 27. “I didn’t see him for a long time, but when I had training camp for getting ready for Timothy Bradley, we had brought him in for sparring. He was pretty good work.

“He’s a good kid. I kind of took to him, tried to teach him a few things about being a professional. Watching him progress and go through the ranks and become a champion, then a champion in multiple divisions, it was cool to see that whole thing unfold.”

Peterson outpointed David Avanesyan on the undercard in Cincinnati on Feb. 18, and then Broner took a split decision over Adrian Granados in the main event.

“I honestly didn’t get a chance to see the fight yet. I maybe saw three rounds max,” Peterson said. “From what I did see, it’s pretty much what I expected. I expected for it to be a grueling fight. From what I saw, they were working on the inside pretty good throwing punches. Adrien was trying to time him coming in. I knew that Granados would put a lot of pressure on.”

Peterson is now 35-3-1 with 17 KOs. He is hoping to face other big welterweight names — which is a long list, even with Broner not being an option.

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