By Jim Dower: Lucas Matthysse (34-2, 32 KO’s) overpowered Lamont Peterson (31-2-1, 16 KO’s) in stopping him in three brutal rounds on Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Matthysse knocked Peterson down twice in the 3rd round with big left hooks and once in the 2nd with another big left hook.
After the 2nd knockdown, the right was halted by the referee. Peterson barely made it up from the first knockdown in the round and there clearly wasn’t enough time for him to recover from the shot. Matthysse then calmly landed a big left hook that knocked Peterson down for the final time in the round.
Peterson used a lot of movement in the 1st round and was able to elude most of Matthysse’s big shots.
In the 2nd round, Peterson attempted to clinch a lot to keep Matthysse from punching. Matthysse still kept punching and landed some hard shots to the back of the head. Late in the round, Matthysse nailed Peterson with a hard right hand that knocked him backwards. Moments later, Matthysse dropped Peterson with a left hook that landed to the top of Peterson’s head. Peterson was able to get up and survive the round despite getting hit with some big shots.
In the 3rd round, Peterson and Matthysee threw left hooks at the same with Matthysse’s getting there first resulting in Peterson hitting the deck. Peterson staggered back to his feet but he was badly hurt. Matthysse then finished him off Peterson with another big left hook that dropped him.
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Fighting one-handed for much of the fight, IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (25-1, 14 KO’s) stopped challenger Lee Purdy (20-4-1, 13 KO’s) in the 7th round.
Purdy was taking nonstop punishment and he didn’t have the physical tools to win, even with Alexander having injured his left hand in the 4th round.
Finally, Purdy’s cornerman Darren Barker halted the fight after the 7th round following blistering salvo of shots from Alexander. Purdy wasn’t happy with the stopping and there was a brief moment where it was unclear whether the fight was being halted or not.
Although Alexander isn’t noted as being a big puncher, he was clearly the bigger puncher tonight compared to Purdy.
Alexander said after the fight that he injured his left hand in the 1st round after hitting Purdy on the top of the head.
It’s unclear what happened to Purdy’s power. He’s usually a better puncher than this, but tonight he looked really weak. What was especially disappointing was that Purdy was still getting outworked even after Alexander injured his left hand. That’s why Purdy’s cornerman Barker decided to hall the fight because Purdy was just soaking punishment. If Purdy had the power to get back in the fight then Barker would have left him out of there, and that was why he chose to halt it.
Purdy’s fitness level was good, but the power, speed and workrate just wasn’t there tonight. He needed at least one of those areas for him to be competitive tonight, but he was missing all of them. Alexander literally was hitting him at will with one hand and Purdy couldn’t do anything. He looked like he was fighting in slow motion.
Other boxing action on the card:
Anthony Ogogo UD 6 Edgar Perez
Anthony Peterson TKO 2 Dominic Salcido
Cesar Seda UD 8 Miguel Tamayo
Rau’shee Warren TKO 4 Angel Carvajal
Jamel Herring TKO 1 Victor Galindo
Robert Easter TKO 2 Eduardo Guillen
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