(Lamont Peterson, pictured here) 25.05.07 – By Jeff Bastasini: Unbeaten prospects Lamont and Anthony Peterson, had a relatively easy time on Friday night, winning by KO’s at the DC Armory in Washington, DC. Anthony Peterson, (23-0, 17 KO’s), though had a tough time with southpaw, Luis Ernesto Jose (27-5-2, 24 KO’s), who was able to hit Anthony often with huge shots, before tiring under the constant attack by Anthony and being stopped in the 9th round.
Light welterweight, Lamont Peterson, 23, the older brother, showed excellent skills in the process of stopping John Brown in the 8th round. Using a vicious body attack, Lamont pounded away at Brown with combinations to his midsection and completely outclassed him in a one-sided boxing affair.
Lightweight Anthony Peterson, 22, considered to be the harder puncher of the two, appeared to be loading up too much on his punches, perhaps trying hard for a knockout to impress the ESPN audience. However, his opponent, Luis Ernesto Jose, 31, from the Dominican Republic, showed equal power as he was able to land huge shots of his own for much of the bout. Often, Jose was able to catch Peterson with lead lefts as he was wading in, dramatically showing the younger Peterson brother’s lack of defense.
However, Peterson was never fazed by the shots, and kept coming forward to land a blistering amount of hooks to the body and head, which he did a good job of mixing up. From rounds 1-6, the fight was pretty much a war, with most fighters trading huge shots. However, in the last three rounds, Jose’s work rate deteriorated under the continuous on slot by Anthony. By the 8th round, Jose appeared exhausted, as he moved around the ring on weak legs, going from one corner to the other, taking a lot of shots in the process.
Finally, in the 9th round, Peterson landed a left hook and right hand, which seemed to hurt the exhausted Jose. Peterson then followed up by angrily showing Jose across the ring to the ropes, where he then hit him with a right hand to the side, causing him to go down. The referee then stepped in and halted the bout. It was a decent performance for Peterson, but considering the amount of punches he took, it was far from impressive. He took way too much punishment against a fighter that good lightweights, such as Juan Diaz or Joel Casamayor, would have easily have beaten.
(Anthony Peterson, pictured here) While Anthony was having his problems with Jose, junior welterweight Lamont Peterson (21-0, 9 KO’s) was nothing short of superb against John Brown (23-14-2, 11 KO’s). Using a consistent body attack, Lamont pounded away at Brown, blasting him round after to round to the body. The fight was one-sided from the beginning and it was only a matter of time before Brown wilted under the fire. In the eighth round, Lamont came charging out and landing a flurry of punches to the head and body while Brown was trapped up against the ropes, helpless to defend himself. Seeing this, the referee, Kenny Chavelier stepped in and halted the bout at 0:28 of the 8th round, though not before falling down just before he stopped it.
If there’s any area to criticize in Lamont’s performance, I would have to say it’s his lack of power. He’s an outstanding body puncher, reminding me a lot of a young Julio Cesar Chavez, but he lacks knockout power, and his defense is as poor as his brother’s. He’d have big problems against the best fighters in the junior welterweight division, such as Ricky Hatton, Ricardo Torres and Junior Witter. Still, he’s a good fighter, possibly top 15 material, but no better than that. Against limited opposition, he’s a world beater and puts on entertaining fights. More than that, with his lack of power, his fights are almost guaranteed to go the distance, which perhaps is one of the reasons he’s one of ESPN’s house fighters.