The February 22 edition of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights presented by Corona Extra will feature an IBF Title fight between current Junior Welterweight titlist Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KOs) and former Junior Welterweight titlist Kendall “Rated R” Holt (28-5, 16 KOs) in the 12-round main event. Friday’s show from Washington, D.C., will air live at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2 HD, and will be available online through WatchESPN.com and on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app. The card will also air live on ESPN Deportes+, the new digital extension of ESPN Deportes, and will air tape delayed on ESPN Deportes at 10:30 p.m. The card is promoted by Gary Shaw Productions.
Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas will be ringside at the D.C. Armory describing the action for ESPN2 HD, while studio host Todd Grisham (@GrishamESPN) will be on site presenting the latest boxing news and highlights. ESPN.com boxing writer Dan Rafael will also be on site providing analysis of each bout. Alex Pombo and Delvin Rodriguez will call this week’s fights for ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates (Friday Night Fights) with Leopoldo Gonzalez and Pablo Viruega in the studio. Bilingual reporter Bernardo Osuna (@osunaespn) will present live interviews and reports for both shows.
Main Event:
Peterson, the home town favorite, enters Friday’s fight with big fight experience, having fought current and former titlists Amir Khan, Victor Ortiz, and Timothy Bradley Jr. He won a 12-round split decision against Khan in his last fight to win the IBF Junior Welterweight title.
“The game plan against Kendall Holt is to stay busy,” Peterson said. “He really doesn’t try to fight the whole three minutes of each round. He kind of picks and chooses when he fights, so we just plan to keep him working and wear him down.”
New Jersey’s Holt is looking to build momentum after a second-round TKO win over Tim Coleman. “Lamont’s a good fighter,” he said. “One big difference in this fight is that none of the pressure is on me – I’m not fighting at home, it’s not my championship title. All the pressure’s on him and that pressure builds up in a person’s mind. He may come out there and try to impress the crowd and if he gets a little overanxious or a little overzealous. It could be an early night for him.”
Co-Feature:
Friday’s eight-round co-feature will pit undefeated Junior Featherweights Roman Morales (14-0, 7 KOs) against Jesus Hernandez (10-0-3 2 KOs). Morales is coming off a fifth-round knockout win over Jose Iniguez, while Hernandez is looking to rebound from a six-round draw against Edwin Solis.
Follow ESPN’s Friday Night Fights on Twitter @ESPNFNF or like it on Facebook. Follow ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates on Twitter @ESPNBoxeo. Also score the fights round-by-round with the “Live Friday Night Fights Facebook Voting App,” an application on the ESPN FNF Facebook page that allows viewers to score the fight round-by-round.
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