The controversial Lamont Peterson (?-?) made the first defense of his IBF Light Welterweight title as he stopped former WBO champion Kendall Holt (?-?) in 8 rounds and a thoroughly impressive victory.
The fight started quietly with a slow opening round which was dominated by Peterson's rangy jab that kept Holt out of range. After a good opening round for Peterson Holt then rallied well and appeared to easily claim rounds 2 and 3 with his own work rate and his ability to neutralise Peterson by tying him up when things got close.
Round 4 saw the fight turning around completely as the pace heated up significantly and became a real firefight. The tough Peterson took whatever Holt was throwing then seemed to really hurt the challenger before landing a massive right hand that sent Holts legs wobbly and the follow up attack sent him down. Although Holt was obviously hurt he managed to keep his sense and recovered to his feet at the count of 8 and managed to just see out the round almost being saved by the bell.
Holt's confidence had been shattered and in round 5 Peterson continued to dominate as he started to walk through everything coming at him. It was obvious that Holt was starting to mentally crumble and he tried to do everything to survive, including holding the ropes to wrap up Peterson, an indiscretion that he was admonished for by Tony Weeks. It was obvious from the on that it was only a matter of time before Holt was going to be stopped.
Peterson continued to dominate in round 6 and started to beat the snot out of Holt late in the round as the challenger got pinned to the ropes and sent down again. The referee seemed to be looking closely at stopping the bout but Holt did just enough to survive the round. After the huge sixth round for Peterson he then came out very quietly for round 7 and just forced Holt to work to maintain distance. Although Peterson threw almost nothing in the seventh he had effective broken Holt mentally who had realised that Peterson wasn't going to get out of his face.
After the quiet seventh round from Peterson's perspective he came out with renewed energy in round 8 and soon afterwards pinned Holt on to the ropes, where he then unleashed shot after shot after shot forcing Tony Weeks to step in and wave off the bout.
After the fight Holt seemed to hint at retirement whilst Peterson called out Danny Garcia and said he wants the WBA belt back (a belt that was stripped from Peterson following his positive test for banned substances back in 2012). A fight between Peterson and any of the top guys in the division, including Garcia, Lucas Matthysse, Brandon Rios or even Khabib Allakhverdiev would be thoroughly entertaining and a great sight for boxing fans who want to see the best fighting the best.
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