WASHINGTON, D.C – British sensation Amir Khan (26-2, 18KOs) made his debut at the Nation’s Capital of United States in hopes to successfully defend his unified WBA/IBF jr. welterweight championship against D.C’s own Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15KOs). The pro-Peterson crowd backed their fighter feverishly, as their man fought the fight of his life to dethrone King Khan, who was touted to be too fast, too powerful, and simply just too good for the D.C. native.
From the opening seconds, Khan was quickly on the offensive, throwing a fast one-two and connecting with a right cross. Peterson did his best remain composed, but ate a left hook that sent him to the canvas for a quick eight count towards the end of the round. Peterson focused to the body and stalked his moving target in round two, but Khan’s versatility and quick hands were a bit superior. Peterson assaulted Khan with hard body shots in round three that had the Brit in serious trouble. Khan was hurt after taking a hard right and combinations against the ropes, but held on to finish the round. Body attack resumed in the fourth, but Khan returned with combinations of his own. Again, Peterson got the better of the exchanges and his tight defense allowed him to slip most of Khan’s punches.
Khan showed resurgence in the fifth. Creating distance to avoid Peterson’s body shots, Khan circled and landed flurries downstairs and also found success with looping uppercuts and well timed lead right hands. From this point on, Khan’s strategy was to box and clinch at close quarters to prevent his opponent from focusing to the midsection. In the seventh, Khan appeared to be in control before Peterson poured on with clubbing right hands. Khan also threw an elbow that cost him a point deduction. Feeling the fatigue from all the circling around, Khan was helpless in the eighth as Peterson punished him around the ring with a variety of shots to the head and body.
The crowd cheered and roared in support of Peterson, but Khan, again, used all the tricks and guile to thwart the finish. Ninth round was a war. Peterson pursued Khan and stunned him again by the ropes, but Khan returned the favor with a left hook and a body shot that briefly had Peterson on wobbly legs. Peterson regrouped in the last thirty seconds and successfully threw right hands, splashing the sweat off Khan’s noggin.
Khan fought with discipline in the tenth, picking his shots and staying elusive for the most part. Peterson kept charging in the eleventh but often got clinched or hit with flurries before getting shoved off. Khan fought well against the ropes and got away with swift one-twos, followed by either a left hook to the body or an uppercut to the chin. Khan was deducted another point in the twelfth for using his elbow, but appear to land more to evade a 10-8 round.
In the end, there was a winner of this seesaw battle as Michael Buffer announced the official scorecards that read (113-112 2x, 111-114) in favor of the new champion, Lamont Peterson. ‘All the hard work paid off. Tough fight. It couldn’t have been a better night. I would definitely give him a rematch’ said the newly crowned jr. welterweight champion. Khan was a bit bitter in defeat, citing the ref’s bias against him in deducting points that cost him his title, ‘It was like I was against two people in there.’ In the post fight interview, Khan also expressed his interest in a rematch.
The co-feature of the evening saw unbeaten heavyweight contender Seth Mitchell (24-0-1, 18KOs) of Brandywine, MD impressively down former contender Timur Ibragimov (30-4-1, 16KOs) of Uzbekistan. Mitchell, a local DC favorite, measured his more experience foe with peppering jabs from the outside and following up with right hands. Ibragimov closed the gap in the second, nailing Mitchell with a hard right, but ran into a hard left hook that wobbled his legs. Mitchell immediately jumped at the opportunity and unleashed a barrage of right hands that sent Ibragimov reeling across the ring. Another right hand connected against the corner and the referee stepped in to stop the bout at the 2:48 mark.
Southeast, Washington, DC’s Anthony Peterson pleased his hometown crowd with a dominant unanimous decision win over the heavily faded former world title challenger Daniel Attah (26-9-1, 9KOs) after eight rounds.
Peterson, holding advantages in multiple facets, controlled the action from round one with attack to the body and backing his smaller foe against the ropes. Attah, a former Olympian, was mostly in retreat mode, unable to put together any offensive output against the naturally bigger Peterson. Peterson rocked Attah in round four, but Attah regrouped and finished the round. Attah, being the wily veteran, tried his best to counter from his southpaw stance and tie up, but to very little effect as Peterson landed the stronger and more telling shots to win rounds. The sixth saw another punishing round by Peterson, sustaining body attack and finding his mark with combinations up top, but Attah landed some of his best shots in retaliation. Peterson unleashed a series of uppercuts and doubled up on his left hooks in round seven. The eighth and final round told a similar story with Peterson easily taking the ‘10’.
Official scores were 80-72, 80-72, and 80-72. This was Peterson’s first fight since his disqualification loss to Brandon Rios in 2010. With the win, Peterson improves to 31-1, 20KOs.
Former highly touted middleweight contender Fernando Guerrero (22-1, 16KOs) of Salisbury, MD made his return to the ring for the first time since his upset loss to spoiler Gary Brewer, defeating St. Paul, MN’s Robert Kliewer (11-14-2, 5KOs) over five one sided rounds. Guerrero dictated the pace throughout, forcing the action with aggressive shots to the body and consecutive one-two combinations. Kliewer retaliated in spurts, but provided very little. Kliewer was dropped near the end of the fourth, but managed to survive. Guerrero resumed attack in the fifth and scored three knockdowns en route to a TKO victory. Kilewer was rendered unconscious after the third knockdown and was carried out on a stretcher. Official time of the stoppage was 0:45 of the fifth round. — Joon Lee
Hollywood, CA’s Jamie Kavanagh (8-0-1, 3KOs) and Puerto Rico’s Ramesis Gil (6-3-5, 5KOs) fought to a draw in a tactical battle over six rounds of lightweight contest. Kavanagh was cut over the right eye from what appeared to be a headbutt in round two. Both guys fought patiently, carefully measuring shots to the head. Ramesis was more of the aggressor, stalking his more mobile opponent and seemingly held the edge in power shots. After three competitive rounds, Kavanagh got his groove going in the fourth and fifth, utilizing his superior footwork to land effective jabs and right hands to scores points. The sixth round was close. Scores were 58-56 (for Kavanagh), 57-57, and 57-57.
Seventeen year old Dusty Harrison took out winless Terrell Davis in round one of a scheduled four round Welterweight bout.
Harrison dropped Davis twice with hard rights to the head and ended the mismatch with crushing right to the body and the bout was stopped at 2:46 of round one.
Harrison, 144 lbs of Washington, DC is now 3-0 with one knockout. Davis of Washington, DC is now 0-5.
In lightweight action, Terron Grant of White Plains, MD improved his mark to 2-0, 1KO with an easy first round stoppage win over Dashawn Autry (0-2) of Garland, NC. It was simply a mismatch in terms of skills and talent as Grant overwhelmed the awkwardly balanced Autry with an onslaught of unanswered array of body shots and hard right hands to the head. Time of the stoppage was 1:10 of the first round. —Joon Lee
In the opening bout of the evening, Joshua Davis scored a four round unanimous decision over Chris Russell in a Lightweight bout.
Davis landed some heavy shots in the fourth round while blood dripped form the nose of Russell.
Davis, 134 lbs of White Plains, MD won by scores of 40-36; 39-37 and 39-37 and is now 2-0. Russell, 134 lbs of Shattuck, OK falls to 2-8-1.
