WASHINGTON, DC — Lamont Peterson re-established himself as a player in the junior welterweight division with a methodical deconstruction of Kendall Holt last night. This fight had a lot of question marks going into it with both men having year-plus layoffs. In the end, Peterson’s pressure and merciless inside work were the decisive factors.
PETERSON WAKES UP: Peterson is a notoriously slow starter and that didn’t change in this contest. He boxed cautiously from the outside and allowed Holt to pepper him with power shots to the body and head. While Peterson caught most of these punches on the gloves, Holt was controlling these rounds and building a nice lead, not to mention confidence. Holt took Peterson’s wariness to exchange as a sign he couldn’t take his power and began to upload in the fourth round.
Big mistake.
Peterson would state later that he was simply getting a feel for Holt’s punch placement before opening up himself. Peterson gave Holt pause in that fourth round with a left hook downstairs and then badly wobbled him with a slashing overhand right. Holt’s attempt to grab resulted in him tasting a collection of hooks on his way to the canvas. Holt barely survived the round as Peterson crashed home two more hooks at the bell with Holt trapped on the ropes.
Holt never got back in the fight for the remaining three rounds. Peterson had periods where he wouldn’t punch much, but even then he’d corner Holt and force him to work either on offense by throwing punches (most of which were blocked) or forcing clinches. He never got a breather of any sort and when Peterson did punch, his shots were short, highly accurate power shots with Holt trapped on the ropes. A triple left hook lead to another knockdown in the sixth, and Holt’s night ended in the eighth with him helpless on the ropes under a barrage of Peterson blows.
PETERSON CAN’T GO WRONG WITH GOLDEN BOY: With this win, the floodgates open for Lamont Peterson in the junior welterweight division. As one of Golden Boy’s newest signees, the list of potential big opponents include Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse or an Amir Khan rematch. And if Adrien Broner is looking for a huge test for his 140 pound debut, he can look no further than Peterson. I’d pay money for each and every one of those fights.
SHOULD HOLT CONTINUE?: Kendall Holt is now 3-4 over his last seven fights. Being in a loaded division does him no favors either. Considering he was competitive with Danny Garcia in 2011, he can still give it a go if he doesn’t mind plying his trade on the Friday Night Fights level for the foreseeable future. He’s clearly on the downside of his career but he can still handle opponents on that level assuming this Peterson beating hasn’t taken too much out of him.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Lucas Matthysse does not work on the clock. The Argentinian slugger needed less than three minutes to dispose of Mike Dallas Jr., landing a crushing counter right for a face-down knockout earlier tonight at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
Dallas showed his speed and worked a sharp jab while Matthysse remained patient in looking to counter. Before the KO, Matthysse landed several solid shots to the body and a few left hands that got Dallas’s attention.
The deciding right hand put out Dallas before he hit the canvas and the referee wisely called off the bout.
Lucas Matthysse is now the #1 contender for Danny Garcia’s WBC title, which will be defended in two weeks against Zab Judah.
On the undercard, Jesus Soto Karass got a career revitalizing decision victory over Selcuk Aydin, and Jermell Charlo made easy work of Harry Joe Yorgey via an eighth round TKO. Aydin, struggling with Karass’s size, jab and left hook to body, tried to outbox his opponent off the backfoot and potshot. The stragegy failed as Karass remained the aggressor and outlanded Aydin in the majority of the rounds, taking the decision by scores of 95-95, and 97-93 twice. Charlo dominated Yorgey from the start in scoring 2 knockdowns and repeatedly nailing Yorgey with jabs and straight rights. The latter punch resulted in the last knockdown and the stoppage.
Matthysse the Beast: Lucas is coming for that WBC belt, whether it’s Zab or Danny holding it. I’m not confident that whoever wins will be in a hurry to fight him. At least after this fight, maybe Garcia will chill on his comments of Matthysse being a nobody.
Aydin Falls Flat: This was Aydin’s fight to shine. Jesus Soto Karass had been on a bit of a slide lately puncuated by his KO loss to Marcos Maidana last September. He’s slow and the consensus was he’d be there for Aydin to hit. Instead, Karass proved to be too strong inside for Aydin, who opted to stay on the move for the entire fight to stay away from those left hooks to the body. Aydin looked absolutely devastated afterward, but this is completely on him. Trying to box is not his game and it was Soto Karass who showed the urgency in the last round. And the judge who had it 95-95 was way off.
Charlo Is the Real Deal: I hadn’t seen Harry Joe Yorgey since Alfredo Angulo bombed him out a few years back. He slowly worked his way back to TV but ran into a much more talented fighter in 22 year old Jermell Charlo. Charlo’s right hands were locked on to Yorgey’s head the entire fight. Yorgey made a go of it but it was obvious early on it was a lost cause. The only criticism I saw was Charlo got a little too complacent and didn’t go for the kill a few rounds earlier when it was clear Yorgey had nothing for him. Other than that, I looked forwar to seeing him progress.
Amir Khan is experiencing deja vu and not one of the positive kind. The WBA, junior welterweight titlist is mere hours away from a unification matchup against Danny Garcia, the WBC title-holder. And like Khan’s last fight in December against then IBF titlist Lamont Peterson, Amir is going into this bout with superfight rumors swirling.
In the last week, whisperings have gone through the boxing community that Khan is next in line to face the currently incarcerated Floyd Mayweather, who’s reportedly looking for one more bout to close out 2012. This same plan was on Khan’s mind before facing Peterson, as evidenced by an interview with this very writer where he ambitiously place himself as a future Pound 4 Pound successor.
All that was derailed when Lamont Peterson scored a shocking, split decision upset. While it was later discovered that Peterson had extra performance help, the now overturned loss still set back Khan’s career for nearly a year.
Tonight he faces another unheralded but dangerous opponent in Danny Garcia, who’s determined to remind Khan in successive bouts that sinking feeling of an upset loss. Just hours before the big fight, Amir Khan reveals whether he’s learned from past mental blunders, or if his mind is still focused on the deja vu of superfight dreams.
Beats, Boxing & Mayhem: The last time we spoke, you were very preoccupied with moving to welterweight and getting big fights in 2012. Yet, here you are still at 140…
Amir Khan: Definitely, the Peterson fight kind of put all that on hold. I still could have moved to 147 but I wanted to have a rematch with Lamont Peterson that didn’t happen. I believe everything happens for a reason and I’ve got another great fight. I’ve matured in weight and it’ll work out for the best.
Beats, Boxing & Mayhem: There was a lot of criticism leveled your way about you not having a competent inside game. Was that addressed in this last camp?
Khan: Yeah, but with this fight it was the power and a lot strength training and conditioning. So I know Garcia is going to feel that punch and get hurt by it. I don’t think he’ll have a chance.
Beats, Boxing & Mayhem: With his recent performances, has Kell Brook hit your radar?
Khan: He needs to fight some big names. Maybe then the fight [between us] can happen. At the moment I’m fighting world-class fighters and campaigning in America while he’s been at home. In the future a fight could be big in America. I don’t think it makes any sense fighting him in America now because nobody knows him. When I beat him people would think ‘who’s this guy?’ I don’t think he’d sell over here either. Maybe in the future when he fights guys in America and recognized in the Top 10.
Beats, Boxing & Mayhem: Considering all that’s come out regarding the circumstances around the first Peterson fight, does it make your more confident going forward or angry?
Khan: A little bit of both, really. At the end of the day we know we won that fight even coming into his backyard with biased judges and a referee. We still want that rematch really to put things straight.
Beats, Boxing & Mayhem: We’ve seen a lot of suspect judging this year, but we still have commissions and even commentators saying it’s incompetence over corruption. What’s your stance?
Khan: I think it’s bad judging, really. But then again you never know because there’s a lot of stuff going on with boxing behind the scenes. There’s a lot that still needs to be found out with what happened in my [last] fight and what happened in Manny [Pacquiao's] fight [against Timothy Bradley]. Something is going on that’s unethical.
I’m a fighter that trains hard for 10 weeks and it hurts when you get cheated like that. I’m hoping the officials continue to look into it and follow through with investigations.
Beats, Boxing & Mayhem: Being that we knew for a fact you’ve been in there with someone on performance enhancing drugs, and from what you’ve seen and heard, how bad do you think the steroids issue is in boxing?
Khan: I think it’s very bad when you have major champions getting caught. You look at Peterson who deliberately took something, lied about not knowing why the sample came back positive and then 3 weeks later remembering [he took testosterone]? Who forgets something like that? He had the chance to tell the truth.
Beats, Boxing & Mayhem: You fought Victor Ortiz in the amateurs and most fans have calmed down on calling him a quitter since it’s been revealed his jaw was broken in two places. Do you think boxing fans, especially those who’ve never boxed, are too harsh or quick to throw the quitter tag around?
Khan: You’re always going to get fans who say and write good and bad things about you. You have to put it in your mental rear view mirror. But with Victor Ortiz he had the chance to box and win that fight but he made it a war and that was Lopez’s game. Maybe the fans are frustrated because they know he should’ve won that fight and went on to a bigger fight against [Canelo] Alvarez. The fans overall just want you to put forth the best effort every time.
Beats, Boxing & Mayhem: You’ve had to verbally spar with Danny Garcia’s father more than his son for the last few months. Any final words to him before you step in the ring?
Khan: I’m going to do my fighting and talking in the ring. All the stuff his father said about my race isn’t going to stop my punches on his son. It’s definitely personal and I’m going to knock him out.
“Khan vs. Garcia,” a 12-round fight for Garcia’s WBC Super Lightweight World Championship, is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Khan Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The fight will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT.
Amir Khan hopes his last junior welterweight fight will be his second unification bout of 2011 by facing the winner of the September 17 matchup between Erik Morales and Lucas Matthysse.
Khan added the IBF strap with his WBA title when he knocked out Zab Judah in five rounds on July 23. Khan plans to move up to welterweight in 2012, leaving December as the month he plans on making his last appearance at junior welterweight. Khan was unable to make a fight with WBC and WBO titlist Timothy Bradley, who was stripped by the WBC for inactivity. Morales and Matthysse will fight for Bradley’s vacant title, and Khan sees the opportunity of unifying three of the division four titles as more attractive than facing Maidana, who squares off against Robert Guerrero on August 27.
“If I was to fight Maidana again I’d beat him again, only more convincingly this time,” Khan told UK reporters. “It would be easier because I know exactly what he does and I wouldn’t make any of the mistakes I did in the first fight. It could happen in the future but there are other names I want first.”
If Khan elects to face the Morales-Matthysse winner, the move will have to be approved by the WBA and IBF. The former has declared that the winner of Guerrero-Maidana will be the #1 contender for Khan’s title. With the latter, Khan has a mandatory defense that must be made against Lamont Peterson, who secured #1 contender status for the IBF when he knocked out Victor Cayo on July 29.
“I’ll fight anyone, but I really want to fight the winner of Morales and Matthysse. That would be another title in the bank,” Khan said.
Khan has a lot of options for December. It’s obvious that he wants Erik Morales simply for the payday. There’s no way Morales can hang with him at this stage. It’s not even a given Morales gets past Matthysse, who lost very close fights recently to Devon Alexander and Zab Judah. On a strictly competition basis, I’d rank Khan’s potential opponents (should they win) as Robert Guerrero, Lucas Matthysse, Marcos Maidana, Lamont Peterson and Erik Morales. Might seem off to have Morales so slow, but I think it’s an awful styles matchup for him. With slow sluggers like Maidana and Matthysse, El Terrible at least has the chance of outboxing them. Not so with Khan.
After hearing Tim Coleman’s venomous threats to “beat him to death,” Vernon Paris enacted satisfying revenge by breaking Tim Coleman down to the body for a decisive seventh round TKO.
Each man’s anger was apparent from the first round. They exchanged hard hooks upstairs with Coleman getting the better of it by using the shoulder roll to counter Paris’s lunging shots. Due to hand speed, Coleman was able to get away with leaping left hooks and lead straight rights upstairs. But it would be Paris who ended the round strong with a three punch combination highlighted by a right hook that stunned Coleman. Paris would taunt Coleman by banging his chest at him.
Now wary of Paris’s right, Coleman stayed at mid-range and relied more on Mayweather’s shoulder roll defense. The strategy paid immediate dividends as Coleman countered Paris’s lunging right with his own straight right for a balance knockdown. Wisely, Coleman realized Paris wasn’t seriously hurt and didn’t rush his attack. Paris continued throwing the right, but this time focused to the body.
Coleman started the third strong by clocking Paris with a leaping left hook, then did a jig taunt in Paris’s face. That cockiness was soon erased when Paris froze Coleman with a left hook to the body followed by a right uppercut and another left downstairs, forcing his hated rival to clinch. Inside, Coleman landed a good left hook upstairs, but it would be Paris who held the advantage by doubling the left hook and focusing his body combinations behind Coleman’s elbows.
Round four saw Tim Coleman come back behind his own body attack on the inside. While Paris did land several 1-2s, Coleman bullied him to the ropes and let loose with scoring hooks to the head. There was still no love lost between them; the referee chastised both for talking between punches.
Paris permanently turned the bout in his favor in round five. Once again, Paris targeted Coleman’s body and hurt him with a left hook. Coleman fired back but his shots noticeably had less power. Coleman tripled his left hook to which Paris responded with a straight right. In a final show a respect, both men touched gloves a few times turning the round.
Paris stalked Coleman and stunned him with a left hook to the head. He followed up with two more left hooks and two uppercuts to force a clinch. A 1-2 pressed Coleman into the ropes and a left hook knocked him across the ring. Coleman was now target practice. Pinned against the ropes, a doubled up hook, punctuated by a body blow, put Coleman down for six seconds. With 20 seconds remaining, Coleman survived, but was dropped again via a left hook to the body.
The body assault had removed any significant fight from Coleman going into the seventh. Paris took less than 30 seconds to corner Coleman and force a referee stoppage after a third knockdown off another left hook.
Vernon Paris raised his record to 25-0, 15 KOs. Tim Coleman falls to
Although Amir Khan’s goal is securing a big money showdown with Golden Boy stablemate Floyd Mayweather, another potential opponent is Robert Guerrero, who faces Marcos Maidana on August 27 for the “vacant” WBA junior welterweight title (Khan is recognized by the WBA as its “super champion). In an interview with Comcast Sports Net, Khan trainer Freddie Roach offered the below quote on the proposed bout, explaining he’d expect a very good fight despite Guerrero’s fight next month being his 140 pound debut.
Guerrero’s a very good fighter, and he used to train in my gym. He’s a very good boxer. He’s starting to sit on his punches more. It would definitely be a competitive fight and would be a great fight for the fans, but I’m confident in my guys. I get them prepared to win. I don’t believe fights should end in decisions, and I’d like for my guys to end them with knockouts.
Amir Khan is expected to return to the ring in early December. His other potential opponent is Erik Morales should the Mexican legend defeat Jorge Barrios for the WBC junior welterweight title on September 17.
Amir Khan can’t remember a time he’s brought genuine anger for an opponent into a ring. He admits “dislike” was an appropriate word for his relationship with Paulie Malignaggi, a Brooklyn loudmouth who taunted Khan for being a “fraud” with a “glass chin.” Khan settled that issue with a thorough beating. On Saturday (July 23), he’ll look to replicate that performance against Zab Judah, another confident American who’s drawn his ire. And while Malignaggi’s mistake was trash-talking, Judah’s mistake may be his public protest of issues with Amir Khan from the negotiating table.
Last week, Khan and Judah participated in what was supposed to be a routine conference call with assembled boxing media. Due to Khan’s British nationality, many UK scribes had also called in. Kathy Duva, who promotes Judah under Main Events, blindsided everyone listening by stating her fighter would not be answering any questions from the UK media. She justified the peculiar stance by revealing closed-door fight negotiations that resulted in Judah getting none of the bout’s UK pay-per-view funds. If Judah wasn’t entitled to a cut of that revenue, she explained, then he shouldn’t be obligated to speak with the UK press.
The move incensed Khan and both camps got into a short debate over which side was being unprofessional. Over a week later, Khan’s still flabbergasted by Judah’s stance on what will possibly be the biggest fight for both their careers in 2011.
“His actions surprised me. It’s a worldwide fight. People in the UK want to see this fight,” Khan explained. “They didn’t promote the fight, really. Maybe he knows he’s gonna get beat and he didn’t want to the whole world to see it. He doesn’t want to see the UK people because I have huge support over there. I fought a lot of Americans before and this is the first time one has ever done this.”
Judah’s gamesmanship hasn’t convinced fans or most critics that he has a serious chance of victory on Saturday night. Most gambling organizations have made Khan a 5-1 betting favorite to knock out Judah by the middle rounds. History tends to favor this conclusion; Judah has fallen short against his best competition except once, when he knocked out Cory Spinks in a 2005 rematch to unify the welterweight title. Nonetheless, Khan does believe his 33-year-old opponent does have more discipline, an attribute he feels Judah lacked in his other high-profile bouts and subsequent losses to Kosta Tszyu, Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto.
“Mentally he’s changed a lot. His confidence is higher at 140,” Khan noted. “He’s a lot more disciplined. Physically he’s stronger and he’s changed his trainer to Pernell Whitaker. At the end of the day Zab is still the underdog because Pernell is in the corner, not fighting for him. But if he doesn’t win this, he might as well retire.”
Despite Judah’s frontrunner tag and Khan’s confidence, his team expects the “new Zab Judah” under Pernell Whitaker to bring a challenging fight over just a few rounds.
“We have a tough fight ahead of us,” said Khan trainer Freddie Roach. “Zab is a great fighter and we watched a lot of tapes of the ‘new’ Zab and we’re ready.”
“Zab is very skilled; we don’t take him lightly at all,” added Alex Ariza, Khan’s strength and conditioning coach. “There’s going to be fireworks on Saturday night.”
In the end, Khan sees his height advantage (5’10 to 5’7) and speed as the reasons why Zab Judah will suffer his seventh loss tomorrow night.
“Paul McCloskey was very awkward and had a lot of movement. Same with Zab Judah and being southpaw,” Khan detailed. “Fighting two southpaws back to back will be ideal for me. We have equal power, but I think I’m quicker. The height will be a big advantage for me. Plus Zab is a frontrunner. But we can’t really hope that it’ll happen again. We’re planning on Zab being strong for the whole 12 rounds. We’re hoping for a tough fight that the public will be excited to watch.”
If you didn’t watch last Saturday’s (June 4) HBO card, you missed Amir Khan and Zab Judah linking up to discuss their July 23 unification match. No fireworks here; both men kept it civil and downplayed their previous Twitter trash talk. Based on that snug polo, it looks like Amir Khan is already in good shape a little over a month out. As far as predictions, Khan says his talent is superior, while Judah cites his experience as the deciding factor.
With Timothy Bradley out of the picture, IBF junior welterweight titlist Zab Judah has emerged as the frontrunner to face Amir Khan. Their stalled negotiations haven’t prevented the fighters from taunting each other on Twitter. Both men took turns highlighting the embarrassing, early knockout losses on their respective ledgers (Khan to Prescott and Judah to Tszyu). Interestingly enough, Judah’s claims he turned down what he deemed to be an unfair offer of a 45-55% split with Khan keeping all the UK revenue. Khan countered that he offered a 60-40% split with the fight taking place in Vegas. Main Events, Judah’s promoter, also chimed in that they could restart negotiations. Does Zab deserve a 50-50 split, or is Khan’s offer fair?
IBF junior welterweight titlist Zab Judah has confirmed his willingness to end the trash talk with WBA champ Amir Khan and unify their titles.
The possibility of a matchup came when WBO and WBC champion Timothy Bradley pulled out of negotiations with Khan over money disagreements. Khan, who’s coming off a technical decision win over Paul McCloskey, has HBO holding a July 23 date for his next fight. When asked about unifying with Judah earlier this week, Khan scoffed and characterized Judah as a “runner”who’d make another ugly fight.
“Judah is a runner like McCloskey. I don’t want another runner,” Khan explained to Boxing Futures. “I want to fight a guy who comes to fight. Why am I going to fight a guy who’s going to run all the way through the fight and not want to get hit it? This is boxing, it’s not about running away like McCloskey.”
The harsh tone came after previous Judah statements where he called Khan a “step down” in competition. Judah vehemently denied the “runner” critique but welcomed the opportunity to prove Khan wrong in the ring.
“I have never been a runner! Check my track record,” Judah told boxingscene.com. “What a way to wake up with a kid trying to get a replacement fight and calling me a runner. Boy, you must of bumped your monkey fucking head. When I said he’s a step down, I didn’t mean I wouldn’t fight him. I was saving his ass but he opened his mouth to the wrong one. Little boy, sign up and it’s on! And remember I did not start this, Amir Khan did, but I will finish this. Fighting is something that I was born to do, so let’s do it boy.”
At press time, Khan’s preference for the July 23 date is lightweight and fellow Golden Boy Promotions stablemate Robert Guerrero.
