By Tony Krebs: Undefeated lightweight contender Anthony Peterson (28-0, 19 KOs) had a tougher time than expected in winning a hard-fought 10-round unanimous decision over former IBF lightweight champion Javier Jauregui (53-15, 36 KOs) on Saturday night at the Palms Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Peterson, 23, a former 2003 National Golden Gloves Lightweight Champion and the brother of top light welterweight contender Lamont Peterson, won almost every round of the fight against the tough 34 year-old Jauregui, yet in doing so Peterson took a lot of punishment along the way while winning. The final judges’ scores were 99-91, 100-90 and 100-90.
Peterson, ranked number #3 in the WBO, #8 in the WBC and #9 in the IBF, used a jab, hard combinations and hooks to the body to pound out the decision. Jauregui, however, made it tough on him by giving him hell in every round, especially early in the fight when he often hit Peterson with power shots to the head, causing his right eye to swell up. As he usually does, Peterson grunted loudly with every punch thrown, whether it is a weak or a hard shot. Peterson appeared to be trying to use his right hand more often with power, perhaps wanting to show that he’s more than a left hand fighter. In fact, his right hand looked measurably improved since his last fight, almost to the point where it was his best asset against the slow, plodding Jauregui.
Unfortunately for Peterson, though, is that like most of his fights, he was unable to find enough power in his shots to take out his opponent. He looked impressive throwing his many combinations and shooting a superb jab, but for whatever reason, he continued to be plagued by his lack of finishing power. This may not be a big deal since he did after all win the bout, but it meant that Peterson was forced to take much more punishment than he might normally would have if he had been able to take Jauregui out with something big.
To be sure, it wasn’t as if Jauregui had never been stopped before because he was flattened by Acelino Freitas in the 1st round in their March 2000 bout. Peterson, however, didn’t come close to knocking Jauregui out until the 10th round when he nailed him with a big left-right combination, then followed it up with four more shots to the head. Jauregui almost immediately recovered and fired back two hard shots after Peterson had emptied his artillery, tagging him in the head.
Peterson was impressive in the early rounds, hitting Jauregui double and triple hooks, jabs and right and hands. It seemed that Peterson did everything in multiples, including taking shots from Jauregui. I think part of the reason Peterson took so many punches from Jauregui was because of his efforts to try and impress with his own offense.
He seemed to understand the need to look impressive for the ringside crowd and television audiences, and didn’t care if it meant that he would have to take an occasional big shot from Jauregui along the way. In this case, he got hit quite often from Jauregui, who may be getting up there in age at 34, but he can still punch with authority.
In the 4th round, Peterson’s left eye began to swell up from the big right hands he was taking from Jauregui. However, it didn’t slow down Peterson’s work rate any as he continued to pour on a high number of shots in every round. Jauregui began to slow down, tiring out by the 6th round. Peterson took advantage of his drop in punch volume by upping the pace of his own offense, but it didn’t have any effect on Jauregui, who took the shots without any signs of being hurt by them.
Peterson was still taking some big shots to the head, thrown with even more power than he was throwing with. In rounds seven through ten, Jauregui hardly punched at all, looking spent and just taking shots from Peterson. It was alarming that even under these conditions, Peterson couldn’t take him out. A better lightweight, like Nate Campbell, Juan Diaz or Amir Khan would have likely have taken out Jauregui by this time.