On Sunday, March 24, 2019, former two-division world champion Lamont Peterson and former 140-pound champion Sergey Lipinets squared off in a scheduled 12-round main event of Premier Boxing Champions on FS1 and FOX Deportes from MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Going into the fight, much of the talk surrounded Peterson and just how the 35-year-old DC native would look after over a year layoff.
It wasn’t just the long layoff, but the result of that fight, which was a brutal stoppage at the hands of Welterweight kingpin, Errol Spence Jr.
Would Peterson be able to turn back the clock and show he can still compete with a rough and rugged contender? Or would Lipinets make his mark at 147 and prove he’s ready to tackle bigger challenges.
As expected, Peterson and Lipinets got comfortable in close quarters early on in the middle of the ring, trading thudding blows both upstairs and to the body.
Peterson established his jab to the body and was just a bit sharper with his punches as Lipinets failed to accurately answer the two-and-three punch combinations thrown by the DC native early on.
Peterson’s slick upper body movement and punishing shots to the body helped him dominate the action in Rounds 2 and 3.
Round 4 saw Lipinets have more success keeping Peterson in the pocket and landing solid combinations. Whereas Peterson was able to slip a lot of Lipinets’ offense in the earlier rounds, he was clipped cleanly on numerous occasions in the fourth stanza.
Behind chants of “DC, DC, DC,” Peterson got back to landing devastating hooks to Lipinets’ body in the fifth and sixth. Amazingly, Lipinets absorbed some hellacious shots that would have ended many fighters’ nights.
Peterson threw a career-high 131 punches in Round 6 and headed into Round 7, each fighter had thrown over 600 total punches as the phone-booth battle continued.
In the eighth, PBC‘s ringside reporter Jordan Hardy went to the corner to discuss the game plan with Lipinets’ trainer Joe Goossen who acknowledged that it was a tough fight up until that point and that Peterson was doing some good work to the body.
Perhaps the praise Goossen gave the opposing fighter woke Lipinets up as midway through the eighth, Lipinets landed a huge right hand upstairs which rocked and staggered the hometown fighter. Peterson spent the rest of the round in survival mode as he used the ropes to steady himself.
Hardy spoke with Peterson’s trainer Barry Hunter in Round 9 to get his take on the fight. Hunter echoed what many of us ringside were seeing.
“He can’t stay on the line and keep eating right hands,” said Hunter. “As long as he’s throwing he’s okay.”
Unfortunately for Peterson he continued to eat huge rights from Lipinets in Round 9, which had the partisan crowd gasping in disbelief.
Through nine rounds, PBC’s unofficial ringside judge Marcos Villegas had the bout scored 86-85 for Peterson–which certainly seemed reasonable. But, the momentum was definitely swinging towards Lipinets as he began to dominate exchanges throughout the second half of the fight.
Just as Round 10 was coming to an end, Lipinets poured on a strong combination, which sent Peterson to the canvas. Peterson’s trainer and father figure Barry Hunter wasted no time in throwing in the towel, much to the dismay of the hometown crowd.
.@unionsamurai relentlessly swings his way to a close! #PetersonLipinets #PBConFS1 pic.twitter.com/FxvLqsMv48
— PBC (@premierboxing) March 25, 2019
For Peterson, this is the first time that he’s lost consecutive fights in his professional and before the winner was announced, many folks ringside alright felt what was coming.
The official stoppage came at 2:59 in Round 10, giving Lipinets the victory by TKO. Both Hunter and Peterson took time to address the crowd after the fight as Peterson made it official and called it a career.
“It’s been a long career but I think today’s the day,” said Peterson. “I’m sure it’s time for me to hang ’em up. This is the last time you’ll see me in the ring. Thanks for everything.”
As for Lipinets, he feels that he’s proven himself at 140 and is ready to compete with the best at 147.
“You’ve seen what I did at 140-pounds and now what I can do here,” said Lipinets. “I made a big jump in competition from my last fight to this one. My new trainer Joe Goossen gets all the credit. We’ve had an excellent camp with perfect sparring that taught me a lot and got me ready for tonight.”
