Samuel Peter: Is His Power Overrated?

After watching WBC interim heavyweight champion Samuel Peter’s (29-1, 22 KOs) last three bouts against Jameel McCline, and James Toney, I’ve concluded that he doesn’t have the monstrous power that I originally that he did after I witnessed his destruction of Jeremy Williams in December 2004, and Peter’s three knockdowns of Wladimir Klitschko in September 2005. Don’t get me wrong, he hits hard for a heavyweight, but certainly not the type of devastating power of someone like Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali Klitschko or a Lennox Lewis have in their arsenal. In fact, what seems to make Peter so dangerous is his tendency to throw a large amount of rabbit punches. That alone makes him a much more effective puncher than he would be other wise.

He did come close to stopping Wladimir, but that was from illegal rabbit punches, not actual legal shots to the head, so I don’t count that fight. Even worse, Peter lost to Wladimir, almost lost to McCline, and should have lost the first fight with Toney, if the judges’ had scored the fight correctly. Even Shufford gave Peter major problems the entire fight, and the scores weren’t indicative of the actual fight that took place. I had that fight ruled a draw. As you can see, prospects often have the scores wildly in their favor regardless of how the fight actually takes place, when they take on an opponent they’re assumed to be able to beat easily.