Lamont Peterson (32-1-1, 16 KOs) scored a 10th-round TKO victory over Edgar Santana (29-4, 20 KOs) to successfully defend his IBF Junior Welterweight title at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The scheduled 12-round fight was the second televised bout of a triple-header presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Showtime Sports.
Peterson, a 30-year-old Washington, DC native, was much quicker and more talented than his overmatched opponent.
Santana, 35, who was born in Manati, Puerto Rico, sought to shock Peterson early by applying pressure and landing an overhand right.
In the following round, however, Peterson increased his footwork, landing punches on the outside to find his rhythm.
Once his rhythm was found, Peterson worked at close range for the rest of the fight, unleashing powerful left hooks on an increasingly gun-shy Santana.
Peterson was allowed to unleash his offense with almost complete clemency by Santana, who only rarely countered Peterson.
Peterson would vary his offense by changing angles and punching around Santana’s peek-a-boo stance. He also used his footwork to do a bit of showboating at certain points.
Santana was eventually stopped in the tenth round after the ringside doctor stopped the fight to prevent Santana from being seriously injured.
In his post-fight interview with Showtime’s Jim Gray, Peterson stated, “I showed a lot of dimensions of my game. I was boxing well, I fought in the inside well.”
Indeed, Peterson didn’t have too much trouble in the ring, treating Santana as more of a sparring partner than a tough opponent.
It was a fight, Peterson seems to admit, to keep him busy.
“I’m always in the gym. It’s good to have a fight. I just wanted to work on some things, stay busy, learn, and build and for the next one,” stated Peterson.
That next fight, of course, is a possible unification fight with WBC, WBA, and RING Light Welterweight champion Danny Garcia.
When asked about a possible matchup with Garcia, Peterson didn’t have much to say besides expressing the hope of its being able to happen.
“Hope. That’s all I can do. This is a business. Both sides got to agree, it got to make sense. I’m willing to do it, but at the end of the day it’s a business and it got to make sense.”
Header photo by Ed Mulholland/Getty Images
