Boxing Challenge:Lipinets retires Peterson

In what will definitely receive consideration for fight of the year when those decisions are made, Sergey Lipinets defeated Lamont Peterson by a tenth round TKO when Peterson's trainer Barry Hunter threw in the towel after Peterson was knocked down after staggering across the ring from Lipinets punches.

Lipinets had hurt Peterson several times in the second half of the fight, especially in the sixth round and after that series of punches, the fight began to swing toward Lipinets after being controlled by Peterson to that point, albeit very competitively.
Leading up to the ending, I had Lipinets slightly ahead 86-85 (5-4 in rounds) and with plenty of back and forth exchanges, both fighters had their moments, but Peterson simply began to run out of steam with the questions being how much Peterson had left to hold Lipinets off, could he make it to the finish line and if so, how many of those close early rounds were scored for the hometown fighter on the official cards?

After the grinding battle, a poignant moment occurred as first, Peterson trainer Barry Hunter spoke to the crowd and then handed the house microphone to Peterson, who then thanked the crowd and his local fans as he announced his retirement.
The time is right for Peterson, who won the WBA and IBF titles at junior welterweight and a minor title at welterweight and always fought with heart, but he's lost his last two fights by knockout and has reached a point in his career that he may be headed closer to gatekeeper status than that of a contender.
Instead of fighting on in a quest that looks unlikely and continuing to accumulate punches, Peterson is making the right decision and moving away from the ring.
Let's hope he keeps that decision intact.
As for Lipinets, he's not a bomber, but he punches well enough that if you choose to maul with him, you are taking the chance that he grinds you up.
I'm still not sure he's strong enough to get away with that against a natural welterweight, which Peterson was not, but he'll be entertaining in his future attempts.

Lamont's brother Anthony drew with Argenis Mendez in the other challenge bout.
Other watchers seemed to think this was a more exciting fight than I did, but it was decent enough.
The Fox crew called for a rematch, but it was nothing I have to see again.
I scored Peterson a 96-94 winner, but I wouldn't scream that a draw was ridiculous enough to bring out the Hamburglar.

In the challenge, neither Ramon Malpica or I scored any points with both picking a Peterson exacta.
Hopefully, I'll have time to return later with more from the weekend.