By Gav Duthie: On Saturday night, Ohio hosted an event which saw two new players in Adrian Broner and Lamont Peterson added to an already talent stacked welterweight division. The 147lb weight class has been a bit stagnant since the retirement of Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015 but with additions like Adrien Broner and Lamont Peterson as well as top end fights between Danny Garcia v Keith Thurman and Kell Brook v Errol Spence conveys a bright future.
The question after Saturday is just how relevant will Broner and Peterson be in this future. Adrien Broner won a split decision over 10 rounds against the relentless Adrian Granados whilst on the undercard Lamont Peterson outpointed David Avanyesan to capture the vacant WBA title.
Welterweight induction
Its not the first time that these two fighters have fought at 147lbs. Lamont Peterson won the WBA regular title against David Avanyesan the version that Broner actually briefly held in 2013 when he defeated Paulie Maliggnaggi by split decision. Broner was 1-2 (0) at Welterweight before Saturday’s bout as he lost his title to Marcos Maidana in December 2013 and then to Shawn Porter at a catchweight of 144lbs in the summer of 2015. In the meantime Adrien found success winning the WBA title at 140lbs and looked comfortable until he failed to make the weight in a defence against Ashley Theophane. Peterson has competed almost his entire career at Jnr welterweight. An opportunity to face Danny Garcia at a catch-weight at 143lbs changed that. Peterson said he would have been happy to fight at 140lbs where they were both world champions and he was unlucky to lose a close decision. He stayed around that weight (144lbs) after he was stripped of his IBF Jnr Welterweight title to face the talented Felix Diaz Jnr this time winning a close decision.
Better Welterweight prospect
1. Manny Pacquiao
2. Keith Thurman
3. Kell Brook
4. Danny Garcia
5. Tim Bradley
6. Jessie Vargas
7. Shawn Porter
8. Errol Spence Jr
9. Amir Khan
10. Jeff Horn
This is my current top 10 at welterweight. I think both Broner and Peterson could fit in there but closer to the bottom than the top. Peterson narrowly beat Khan and arguably should have beaten Garcia. Broner I wouldn’t back to beat anyone on there apart from Jeff Horn and he has already lost to Porter. Broner looked small even compared to Granados and he couldn’t push him around like he used to do with lightweights like Gavin Rees. Peterson isn’t particularly powerful himself with 17 KO’s from 39 bouts but he needs it less than Broner. Peterson has enough of a dig to make opponents think and he can box in different styles. He stood right in front of Avanyesan (a fully fledged welterweight unlike Granados) when he could have boxed circles round him.
At the moment I would expect Peterson to beat Broner and I really think that ‘The Problem’ should consider getting back down to Jnr welterweight to fight the winner of Ricky Burns v Julius Indongo rather than stay at welterweight.