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.

Boxing Challenge: Spence Stops Peterson!

Photo Credit: Frank Franklin-AP Photo

The 2018 Boxing Challenge raced out of the starting blocks with arguably the next big star in boxing as Errol Spence retained his IBF welterweight title when Lamont Peterson's corner refused to allow their gallant warrior to answer the bell for the start of the eighth round.

Spence won every round, knocked Peterson down in the fifth round, walked through some decent right hands from Peterson and generally made a solid top ten welterweight look like he was one step away from retirement.
It was exactly the type of performance Spence needed to deliver and he came through with flying colors.
I also enjoyed the post-fight interview where Spence called out the usually reluctant Keith Thurman as "Some Time".
Spence tweeted this morning as having a next fight date set already, so perhaps Spence is beginning to set the tone for his career by actually demand that PBC make fights for him, which would be a good thing for Spence and for boxing fans who would love to see more of him in the ring.

In the co-feature, Robert Easter defeated Javier Fortuna via split decision in a fight that likely saw Easter lose a little luster.
The much shorter Fortuna moving up in weight ( having won minor titles at 126 and 130 ) pressed the action, forced Easter to be unable to use his reach and not be able to box from the outside.
The referee took a point away from Fortuna in the second round (which seemed very early to be taking points away to me) for holding and hitting and that decision cost Fortuna a draw on the judge's card.
Fortuna swept the final four rounds on my card and I had him winning 115-112, but it was hard for me to summon too much sympathy for a guy that has lost a title on the scales in the past (at a weight NINE pounds lower), so I won't be crying too much for Fortuna.

In the challenge. I added three points (2 for Spence,1 for Easter) to Ramon Malpica's two (1 for each win) to start the 2018 challenge.

Tune in tomorrow night for Fightheads for Ramon and me's thoughts on Errol Spence, Robert Easter, and this weekend's three fights .

Boxing Challenge

The 2018 Boxing Challenge begins with a two-fight card on Showtime and one of the coming stars in the sport defending his title for the first time.

The boxing challenge with Ramon Malpica will enter its fifth year and it doesn't seem that Ramon and I have been friends that long!
Time sure flies by!
Ramon won the challenge in the first year and I have won the last three, so I'm hoping to add another imaginary trophy to the imaginary mantle!

In Brooklyn, IBF welterweight champ Errol Spence is one of the hottest names in the game and talent wise, he is certainly deserving of that status, especially off his impressive title-winning effort over Kell Brook in England.
Spence's biggest problem is typical of most of the fighters that fight for PBC- they just don't fight enough and often times they don't fight really good opposition when they do.
Spence may have taken way too much off after his win over Brook (eight months), but at least his return is not against a light touch as he'll be taking on former junior welterweight champion Lamont Peterson, who has given every top opponent (except a three-round KO loss to Lucas Matthysse) all they could handle, whether Peterson won (Amir Khan) close or lost (Danny Garcia) close or anything in between (Tim Bradley) and should be at least an interesting test for young Spence.

On paper, this looks like this is going to be a good one and style wise, it looks like it could be a fun fight.
However, I have a feeling, this is going to be the true coming out party for Spence-too big, too strong and too fast for the solid but not special Peterson, who is going to find himself overwhelmed by a very special fighter.

The co-feature has IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter in a non-title bout against Javier Fortuna.
Why a non-title bout?
Because Fortuna, a former minor title holder at 126 and 130 pounds, couldn't find it within himself to make the lightweight limit of 135 pounds and was ineligible to win the title from Easter.
Fortuna will give Easter a percentage of his purse and Easter cannot lose his title even if he loses the fight so the fight will go on, but since Fortuna has done this before (he lost his minor WBA featherweight title on the scales), I don't need to see him on any type of cards of major magnitude in the future.
I'm tired of giving these guys rewards for not doing their jobs to make the weight.
It disappoints everyone involved and they don't deserve second chances for quite a while-let alone third chances...

IBF Welterweight Title. 12 Rds
Errol Spence vs Lamont Peterson
R.L: Spence Unanimous Decision
TRS: Spence KO 7

Lightweights. 12 Rds
Robert Easter vs Javier Fortuna
R.L: Easter KO 8
TRS: Easter KO 6

Broner squeaks by Granados-Boxing Challenge

The Boxing Challenge continued on a free Showtime weekend with three interesting bouts.
I scored five points to Ramon Malpica's four on the night to take a small lead of 11-10 in the challenge...

In the main event,Adrien Broner squeaked out a narrow split decision over hard luck Adrian Granados in a ten round welterweight bout.
I scored Granados a 96-94 winner,but the fight was close enough that I would not argue with a card of the same score for Broner.
Here is the biggest problem that Adrien Broner faces-at 147,he just isn't strong enough to beat the best fighters in the division,which Granados is far from that level,but at 140 pounds where he would likely be the favorite against anyone except Terence Crawford,Broner simply cannot be relied on make the weight and I'd be very uneasy attempting to promote any fight with Broner at that weight.
Ramon and I earned one point for the Broner win.

In the co-feature,Lamont Peterson defeated David Avenesyan by a unanimous decision in another decent scrap.
Peterson won a minor belt with the win,but more importantly for him earned him the mandatory spot for the winner of the WBA-WBC welterweight unification fight in two weeks between Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia.
I scored Peterson a 116-112 winner and looked solid,but not spectacular in earning the win over Avenesyan,who only had the aging Shane Mosley as an opponent of any note entering the fight.
Ramon and I would add two points for the Peterson victory.

Former Olympian Marcus Browne notched his best win as a pro as the light heavyweight knocked out Thomas Williams in the sixth round.
Williams,who was knocked out by Adonis Stevenson in a championship try in his previous fight,was dropped in the second and fourth before the knockout in round six.
After the fight,Williams was taken to the hospital with a broken jaw,while Browne announced his intentions to challenge WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson,which should be-
A) Easy to make since both are with Al Haymon,B) A fun fight to watch since both are big punchers with suspect chins and C) Stevenson only fights guys smaller than him,fighters with questionable chins and often times both.
A Stevenson-Browne winner wouldn't be any better than the third best (at most) fighter in the division,but like Stevenson's fight with Thomas Williams,it would be fun to watch....
I earned two points for the Browne win and knockout,with Ramon adding one for the win..

More on these fights and other boxing topics tomorrow on Fightheads.
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