Lamont Peterson vs. Felix Diaz: Winner, Scorecard and Reaction
In an excellent bout from EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia, on Saturday afternoon, Lamont "Havoc" Peterson (34-3-1) handed Felix Diaz (17-1) his first professional loss via majority decision.
The 2008 Olympic gold medalist from the Dominican Republic came in undefeated, but it was Peterson's name and Washington, D.C. background that carried the most weight in the pre-fight billing.
Judging by the disparity in the scorecards compared to the competitive nature of the fight, the weight of Peterson's name and the close proximity to his hometown might have influenced the judges.
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Per the Premier Boxing Champions on NBC broadcast, the judges scored the fight as follows—Brian Costello 114-114, Mark D'Attilio 116-112 and Dorothea Perry 117-111, with the latter two in favor of Peterson.
Most who saw the bout agreed it was much closer than the D'Attilio or Perry scorecard indicates. Two Piece Boxing took Perry's scorecard to task, and ESPN's Brian Campbell actually scored the fight for Diaz:
Early on, the 31-year-old Peterson did some exceptional body work. He seemed to be trying to wear down his opponent in hopes of pulling away late in the fight. Clearly, the judges gave him credit for his work to Diaz's midsection.
However, they might have missed the boat on Diaz's ring generalship and hard counter shots to Peterson's head.
In the second round, Peterson landed the first of several memorable punches from both men. A hard right hand sent Diaz back into the ropes. He wasn't badly hurt, but you could see from his reaction that the shot got his attention.
In accordance with his usual strategy of pursuit, Peterson followed the shot up with pressure as he easily won that round—and more than likely the next.
Midway through the fight, Diaz turned it on. His lateral movement began to give Peterson trouble. Diaz constantly created counterpunching angles for himself by sidestepping Peterson's jab and his more pronounced attempts to bang his body.
Diaz was gaining confidence from the fourth round on and was making the fight a difficult one to score. In the ninth round, a hard left uppercut snapped Peterson's head back, and Diaz followed it with a nice flurry.
The sequence looked to have him on his way to taking the round easily, but Peterson would respond.
More body punching and pressure allowed him to close the round well and muddy yet another frame for those tasked with trying to identify a winner. There should have been less confusion about the final three rounds, though.
Diaz was the fresher man late. He pressured Peterson and even landed a long series of unanswered shots while Havoc covered up on the ropes in the final round. If judges gave Diaz the final three rounds—as they should have—it's hard to imagine how he could lose by four—let alone five—points.
The final punch stat numbers seem to support the judges' decision—but perhaps not Peterson's wide margin of victory on D'Attilio and Perry's cards. Per the broadcast, Peterson out-landed Diaz 234-168, but the latter threw 761 punches to 709 for Havoc.
Peterson also landed 182 power shots compared to 139 for Diaz.
If you didn't see the fight, you might be asking "Where's the controversy?" The folks who believe Diaz won, or should have at least been closer on the cards, will likely point to the fact that his shots looked to have greater effect than Peterson's.
What does that mean? Let's put it this way: Diaz's promotion team or the next network that broadcasts his fights won't have to look too hard to find punches for his highlight reel.
He snapped Peterson's head back on several occasions, and that isn't captured in the punch-stat numbers.
When it was over, Peterson said on the broadcast, "I controlled the fight and I thought I won," but he admitted he got nervous when the first scorecard was a draw.
In any case, his win isn't a complete travesty. There's clearly statistical evidence to back it up. Based on the eye test, though, Diaz will come out of this fight with more options than he had coming in.
He was entertaining and proved he could compete with a top-10 fighter in the 140-147-pound region.
This bout was contested at a 144-pound catchweight as Peterson continues to position himself between the welterweight and junior welterweight divisions. There are intriguing fights in both weight classes for him, but it's hard to find a prominent opponent against whom he'd be favored.
A rematch with Danny Garcia might be appealing—at least on Peterson's side. Many people believe he beat Garcia back in April, but much like Diaz on Saturday, Peterson didn't get the nod from the judges.
Perhaps a scrap with Amir Khan, Keith Thurman, Robert Guerrero, Shawn Porter or even Adrien Broner can materialize. Any of those fights would be a solid main event on PBC or Showtime.
As for Diaz, he's not yet on that level, but he's definitely a fighter that fans wouldn't mind seeing again on a major stage. Despite the result, he gave a good accounting of himself. Expect to see him get a second shot at a known PBC fighter—the same way Aaron Martinez did.
After losing a disputed decision against Guerrero in his PBC debut back in June, Martinez knocked off former world champion Devon Alexander on Wednesday. Don't be surprised to see Diaz take a similar path.
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