By Jim Dower: Former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (34-3, 27 KO’s) defeated contender Nagy Aguilera (15-3, 10 KO’s) in a 2nd round TKO tonight in a IBF heavyweight eliminator match at the Gaylord Hotel, in Grapevine, Texas. Peter, came into the fight at 237, his lowest weight for him since 2001, knocked Aguilera down with a crushing right hand in the 2nd round.
The fight was then stopped at 2:24 of the round. Peter, 29, was way too strong for the 23-year-old Aguilera, who for his part had defeated former WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev in the 1st round in his last fight in December 2009.
***
In other action, undefeated middleweight prospect Omar Henry (8-0, 7 KO’s) took out Franciso Reza (6-1, 5 KO’s) in the 1st round of a scheduled six round bout.
***
Unbeaten lightweight contender Anthony Peterson (30-0, 20 KO’s) defeated Juan Ramon Ramon Cruz (16-7-1, 12 KO’s) by a 3rd round knockout. Peterson knocked Cruz down in the 2nd round, and a couple of times in the third. The fight was finally stopped at 1:11 of the 3rd round.
***
Much hyped light welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez (3-0, 3 KO’s) picked up his second win of his young career, stopping Bobby Hill (1-4) in the 3rd round of a scheduled four round bout.
***
In a big upset, flyweight knockout artist Hernan Marquez (25-1, 18 KOs) was beaten by little known Richie Mepranum (16-2-1, 3 KOs) in a 10 round unanimous decision loss. The final judges’ scores were 99-91, 96-94, 98-92. Marquez stalked Mepranum around the ring all night long, throwing big shots, but missing a lot of them time. Mepranum was much more accurate with his shots and did a good job of moving out of the way of Marquez’s big power shots.