By Charlie Knoxville
The Premier Boxing Champions broadcast was aired live on network TV, and the people who tuned in saw a robbery on NBC.
How could Lamont Peterson lose a majority decision to Danny Garcia unless the fix was in? This decision is up there with the Manny Pacquiao vs. Tim Bradley fight, when Pacquiao clearly beat Bradley but lost a highly controversial split decision.
The official scores read, 114-114 a draw from one judge, and 115-113 from the other two judges in favor of Danny Garcia.
Lamont Peterson impressed me big time. He showed a lot of different looks, he was toying with Garcia early, using his foot movement looking like a young Sugar Ray Leonard. Peterson played the part of a matador early making Garcia miss so many punches early.
After a few rounds, Peterson decided to walk down Garcia who complained that he was running, and this time Garcia was the one who was moving or running as he claimed. Peterson showed great defense in close, he blocked all the hard shots, hit Garcia with a lot of hard clean power shots and was touching and marking his face up all night.
Peterson fought his best fight in years. In the last 3 rounds Peterson even finished strong, trying to close the show so they wouldn’t rob him. Peterson was pressing for the knockout landing many punches on Garcia’s face and body not wanting to leave it in the judges hands. Usually when fighters are winning as easy as Peterson, they will take the last few rounds off and just box and move and play it safe, but Peterson continued to throw and push Garcia back until the final bell.
I thought the fight would have been a wide Unanimous Decision in Lamont’s favor but I knew something was fishy when the first score card read was a draw. Its very sad when a boxer like Peterson displays multiple dimensions in the ring and puts on a masterclass only to get robbed of a rightful victory. This decision is not good for boxing, casuals watched it and it just reinforced their view that boxing is corrupt.
This isn’t the first time Danny Garcia was given a gift decision, the last one was in Puerto Rico against Mauricio Herrera. Garcia is a tough kid, but he is too one dimensional and flat footed, he relies on his power and lacks defense and shows an inability to cut off the ring.
The only thing that impressed me about Danny Garcia was his ability to take power shots. There were moments in the last two rounds where Peterson landed hard flush hooks that hit Garcia spot on his chin and he didn’t even wobble.
This is boxing, you don’t win a fight on your ability to take punishment, whoever lands the most punches wins not whoever receives the most, and Peterson clearly landed the better shots, his face looked like he wasn’t even in a fight no marks at all, while Garcia face looked like a train wreck.
I am an avid fan of boxing and video games. My first fight of memory was watching Prince Naseem Hamed destroy Kevin Kelly. I enjoy all aspects of the sport. My favorite current boxer is Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao. My favorite boxing match is Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo 1. I love watching boxing on Pay-Per-View more than being there live because you can really enjoy and watch the action from the best view.