By William Mackay: Unbeaten World Boxing Organization light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (25-0, 11 KO’s) defeated number #1 challenger Lamont Peterson (27-1, 13 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Agua Caliente Casino, Rancho Mirage, California. The final judges’ scores were 118-110, 119-108 and 120-107. Bradley, 27, knocked Peterson down with a hard right hand to the top of Peterson’s head in the 3rd round, and had him hurt in several of the other rounds of the one-sided fight. It was thought going into the fight that this would be a fairly closely contested affair. However, Bradley was much too fast and better on the inside.
In the 1st round, the action was pretty even until Bradley caught Peterson with a hard right hand late in the round and then followed up with several more hard shots, causing Peterson to back away quickly. Bradley went after Peterson in a hurry to add to the damage, but slipped on the canvas as he was going after him.
In the 2nd round, Bradley hurt Peterson with two hard right hands to the head. Peterson mostly took shots in the round, as he was too slow to land his punches and found himself on the receiving end for most of the round.
Things didn’t get much better for Peterson in rounds three and four, with Bradley getting in close and working Peterson over with fast and powerful combinations to the head and body.
After a poor start in the 5th round, Peterson took over the remaining two minutes of the round and landed some big shots to the head of Bradley. in the 6th round, Bradley came back strong, pressuring Peterson and getting the better of him at close range. Peterson gamely tried to fight back, but his hand speed was just too slow to get his punches in. Peterson fought well in the 7th, taking over the round after the first minute and landing quite a few nice punches to the head of Bradley.
Bradley began to totally dominate the fight in rounds eight through ten, hitting Peterson often with fast shots and keeping him under a constant rain of fire.
In the 11th, Bradley continued with the one-way traffic, hitting Peterson pretty much whenever he pleased. Peterson kept trying hard to attack, but was too slow. In the 12th, Bradley stayed on the outside and basically gave the round away to Peterson, knowing that he was well in control of the fight and could afford to ease off the pedal.
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In the undercard, World Boxing Council super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (33-2-1, 27 KO’s) stopped Tomas Rojas (32-12-1, 22 KO’s) in a sudden 2nd round knockout. Darchinyan, 33, who was coming off a disappointing 12 round decision loss to IBF bantamweight champion Joseph Agbeko in July, caught Rojas with a looping right hand in the 2nd round that sent him backing up to the ropes. Darchinyan then followed with a big left hand that crashed off the chin of Rojas, sending him down on his back on the canvas. Rojas was badly hurt from the punch and couldn’t make it to his feet. Referee Raul Caiz Jr. then stopped the bout at 2:54 of the round.
Darchinyan controlled the first round was his straight left hand power shots. Rojas looked like he wanted to trade early in the round, but after getting hit with several of Darchinyan’s hard punches, he seemed to have second thoughts about throwing anything back at him.
After the fight, Darchinyan’s promoter, Gary Shaw, mentioned wanting to match Darchinyan up with Nonito Donaire, who stopped Darchinyan in the 5th round two years ago in July 2007.
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In the final bout on the card, Freddy Hernandez defeated Octavio Narvaez by an eight round decision.