GRAPEVINE, Texas — Former heavyweight titleholder Samuel Peter moved a step closer to another title opportunity when he savagely knocked out Nagy Aguilera in the second round of a title eliminator on Friday night at the Gaylord Texan hotel.

Peter (34-3, 27 KOs), who briefly held a world title in 2008, dropped Aguilera in the second round with a flush right hand to the head and got the stoppage moments later when referee Laurence Cole stepped in during Peter’s punishing follow-up assault that left Aguilera dazed against the ropes.

Peter looked strong and lean. The rap on him in recent years has been his conditioning, but he was a trim and muscled 237 1/2 pounds, a far cry from the 265 he weighed when he lost a decision to Eddie Chambers last March.

Since that fight, Peter signed with Top Rank and has won four in a row on the comeback trail. Now he’s close to a shot at the title held by Wladimir Klitschko, who owns a 2005 decision win against Peter despite being knocked down three times.

Klitschko defends his belts against Chambers on March 20. The winner of that bout owes a long-overdue mandatory shot to Alexander Povetkin. Peter is next in line after that.

“Povetkin or Klitschko, I’m ready,” Peter said. “Povetkin has been the mandatory forever. He and Klitschko need to fight or he needs to get out of my way.”

Manager Ivaylo Gotzev raved about Peter’s conditioning as the key to the win.

“He has never been in as good a shape as he was tonight,” Gotzev said. “Wladimir, come on. We’re here to finish what we started in 2005.”

Peter, 29, a native of Nigeria living in Las Vegas, claimed a slice of the title with a sixth-round knockout of Oleg Maskaev in 2008 before losing it later in the year when Vitali Klitschko (Wladimir’s older brother) made him quit after eight rounds. Peter’s loss to Chambers followed.

Aguilera (15-3, 10 KOs), 23, a native of the Dominican Republic living in New York, had earned the fight with Peter by upsetting Maskaev with a first-round knockout in December.

On the undercard, lightweight contender Anthony Peterson (30-0, 20 KOs), 24, of Washington, D.C., returned from a seven-month layoff caused by a knee injury to batter Juan Ramon Cruz (16-8-1, 12 KOs) en route to a third-round knockout.

Peterson slammed jab after jab into Cruz’s face throughout the one-sided fight. He dropped Cruz, 31, of Puerto Rico, in the second round and twice more in the third to force the stoppage.

The fight was made so Peterson could shake off the rust from the layoff and get ready for a title fight.

On Saturday night, Humberto Soto and David Diaz square off for a vacant lightweight belt on the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey undercard at Cowboys Stadium. Peterson will fight the winner in a mandatory fight. If Soto wins, the fight will be at Yankee Stadium on June 5 in the HBO-televised undercard to the Yuri Foreman-Miguel Cotto junior middleweight title bout. HBO, however, is not interested in Diaz-Peterson, which means Peterson will be ringside rooting for Soto on Saturday.

“I’m going to be 25 years old [on Tuesday] and if I ain’t ready for a title fight now, I’ll never be ready,” Peterson said. “[Cruz] had a real hard head and I hurt my left hand, but it’s time [for a title shot].”

Also on the undercard, Houston junior middleweight prospect Omar Henry (8-0, 7 KOs), 23, looked spectacular, scoring two hard knockdowns in 33 seconds to stop Francisco Reza (5-2, 4 KOs) in the opening round.

Freddie Roach-trained 17-year-old junior welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. (3-0, 3 KOs) of Phoenix dropped Bobby Hill (1-4) in the second round and twice more in the third for the stoppage victory with one second left in the third round.

Dan Rafael is ESPN.com’s boxing writer.

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Samuel Peter KOs Nagy Aguilera, eyes heavyweight title shot

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