By Dave Lahr: Lightweight contender Anthony Peterson (29-0, 19 KO’s) defeated journeyman Luis Antonio Arceo (21-9-2, 14 KO’s) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Peterson, 24, was fighting for the first time since last August because of a knee injury he sustained while training last year, had a lot of problems with the high work rate of Arceo, 30, and ended up not looking very impressive in getting the 10 round victory.
The final judges’ scores were 98-92, 99-91 and 97-93. Peterson, ranked number #2 in the WBC, #6 IBF, and #9 in the WBO, landed the harder and more accurate shots, even though Arceo threw twice as many punches than he did. Peterson especially had problems in the early rounds with Arceo’s solid body attack.
Peterson was trying to match his jabs against the power shots of Arceo and coming up short. Arceo continued to fight really well in the 2nd round, landing big body shots in the first half of the round. Peterson came on in the last part of the round, hitting Arceo with a number of big left hooks to the head.
Once Peterson discovered that he could land his left hook, he went back to the punch again and again for the remainder of the round. However, Arceo wasn’t going be easily discouraged as he continued to throw a lot of punches, getting the better of Peterson in the 3rd round.
The body shots were especially nice and seemed to have the effect of shutting down Peterson’s work rate almost entirely. In between the 3rd and the 4th rounds, Peterson’s trainer scolded him about his performance giving him a tough message.
Peterson seemed to listen well, because in the 4th round he fought much better than the previous three rounds, hitting Arceo with solid jabs and powerful left hooks. To try and keep Arceo from clinching, Peterson resorted to the dirty tactic of jumping up in down at one point so that his shoulder was connecting to the chin of Arceo. This led to Peterson being warned about it by referee Robert Byrd.
In the 5th, Peterson landed some big left hooks and right hands, fighting well for most of the round. However, his shots weren’t powerful enough to keep Arceo from throwing a lot of punches of his own, although his connect percentage was much less precise compared to that of Peterson. Arceo dominated the first half of the 6th round with a lot of 1-2 combinations.
However, Peterson came on in the second part of the round and appeared to hurt Arceo with a left hook in the final seconds of the round. In rounds eight and nine, Peterson got the better of the action with his bigger shots. The punch stats were still pretty even with both fighters landing about the same amount of shots.
Luckily for Peterson, he was the harder puncher of the two, although not by all that much. Peterson dominated the 10th and final round, and hurt Arceo with a big left hand in the final seconds of the round. Had there been a little more time in the round, Peterson would have likely finished Arceo off.
All in all, not a very good performance by Peterson,. This was a fighter that Peterson should have easily beaten, given that Arceo had been beaten seven out of his last nine fights with two of them by knockout. I don’t like Peterson’s chances against WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero. Peterson doesn’t hit hard enough and will be in big trouble in that fight.
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