Timothy Bradley stayed undefeated with a masterful performance against unbeaten challenger Lamont Peterson, winning a unanimous decision in Rancho Mirage, California.

Official scores were 118-110, 119-108 and 120-107. Bad Left Hook scored it 118-109 for Bradley.

Both fighters started fast, with Bradley knocking down Peterson in the third round, but Peterson stormed back in the same round, turning the fight into a bit of a war.

But soon enough, Bradley (25-0, 11 KO) took over and in many rounds, was flat-out dominant. Peterson (27-1, 13 KO) boxed pretty well, but was just a bit outclassed by the stronger Bradley, whose power is better than his KO rate, something it seems we've been noting since the Junior Witter win last year. Bradley used constant motion and a lot of angles to beat a pretty straightforward Peterson, who just couldn't keep up overall.

For Bradley, this could hopefully lead to a big fight. By rights, he should be in the running for a money bout with Ricky Hatton, but he won't be; Hatton wants a bigger name for his opponent, and that's understandable. There are good fights for Bradley, but he may have to seek them out. I don't see anyone banging this guy's door down right now.

As for Peterson, the loss is no shame. Bradley just keeps getting better and better, and losing to a world-class fighter doesn't make you a hype job. Peterson still has a lot of career left, and I'll bet he wins a title or two along the way.

"The Raging Bull" rages again.

Vic Darchinyan was being outboxed a bit early by long and tall Tomas Rojas, but a second round, chin-busting left hand knocked out the Mexican challenger, giving Darchinyan a great win to close out a 2009 that got a bit rocky in the summer.

After stepping up to 118 pounds and losing a tight, entertaining battle with Joseph Agbeko in July, Darchinyan (33-2-1, 27 KO) moved back to 115 pounds and took on a very credible, very dangerous challenger who was on quite a roll. And Rojas (32-12-1, 22 KO) was looking good early, catching Darchinyan and timing him fairly well.

But it was a small, 17-foot ring, and eventually, Vic Darchinyan's power reigned supreme.

He caught Rojas near the ropes, and clipped him with an overhand left. Rojas then did the old "gimme what ya got!" hand gesture, and well, he got what Darchinyan had. A stiff left hand crushed Rojas' chin, sending him down hard to the mat. Rojas' head bounced off the canvas, and he laid with his head under the ropes, done for the evening.

After the fight, Darchinyan and promoter Gary Shaw talked about a rematch with Nonito Donaire, who took Darchinyan's "0" in 2007. While I agree with some that Donaire is always going to be a terrible matchup for Darchinyan, there's no better fight at 115 pounds, and it's a rematch people want to see. Donaire has been fighting lesser guys -- not bad opponents, but not Darchinyan, either. Hopefully that can happen next summer, as Donaire has a fight already scheduled for February on another Top Rank Pinoy Power pay-per-view.

Our live coverage continues just one post down from this as we await the Bradley-Peterson main event on Showtime.

Tonight's Showtime Championship Boxing is a very good double-header to close out a superb 2009 from the network. The action begins at 9pm ET.

Note: We WILL be doing the HBO card, too, which starts at 10:15 ET. At about 10pm, we'll put up a new thread for the HBO fights. Our plan is to do all four live fights between the two shows, but there's a good chance we'll miss the Victor Ortiz-Antonio Diaz fight on HBO in favor of the Showtime main event's finish. All in all we're getting what amounts to a really good PPV (sans great main event) out of these two cards tonight.

TIMOTHY BRADLEY		LAMONT PETERSON
	Main Event

Weights are in across the board for tomorrow's fights on Showtime and HBO, and everyone is on target.

Photo by Chris Farina - Top Rank

In Rancho Mirage, Calif., Timothy Bradley and Lamont Peterson made weight for their 140-pound title clash on Showtime. Bradley was ripped as always, coming in at 138 pounds, with Peterson at 139.

On the undercard, both Vic Darchinyan and Tomas Rojas were under the limit for their 115-pound title fight. Darchinyan, the titlist, was at 114 1/2, with Rojas at 113 1/2. Our own Brickhaus thinks Rojas is a very live dog, and is picking him to upset Darchinyan. Meanwhile, I'm taking Peterson to "upset" Bradley.

via www.goldenboypromotions.com

The HBO main event had a catchweight of 139 pounds, and both Paulie Malignaggi and Juan Diaz were just under. Malignaggi weighed 138.6, with Diaz at 138.4. The last time they fought, the limit was 138.5, which was among the more ridiculous bargaining chips of the year.

There's also a catchweight for the Victor Ortiz-Antonio Diaz scrap. Diaz, normally a welterweight, and Ortiz, normally a junior welterweight, agreed to meet in the middle at 144 pounds. Both fighters tipped the scales at 144 on the button.

Showtime closes out a terrific year of boxing with a double-header worth your while and then some on Saturday.

The main event is a 140-pound title clash between Timothy Bradley and Lamont Peterson, two young, skilled and unbeaten Americans, and in the co-feature, Vic Darchinyan looks to get his groove back against rugged Mexican Tomas Rojas.

Bradley-Peterson

In what may be the most important and most relevant fight of a loaded Saturday, Timothy Bradley (24-0, 11 KO) defends his WBO junior welterweight title against Lamont Peterson (27-0, 13 KO). Both are skilled, both are quick, and both are unbeaten.

The differences?

#1: Level of Opposition

Bradley has taken on and beaten Junior Witter and Kendall Holt, as well as faced Nate Campbell in August in a fight that resulted in a no-contest, with Bradley taking the veteran to the woodshed. Peterson's toughest opponents just cannot compare. He beat tough guy Lanardo Tyner last November, and outclassed celebrated French amateur Willy Blain in his lone fight of 2009, which took place in April. Tyner and Blain simply don't stack up to Witter (even faded) and Holt. Bradley also has a win over Miguel Vazquez.

#2: Size

Bradley is quite short at 5'6", but his 69" reach helps make up for it, as does his pure skill. But Peterson is no slouch in the talent department either, and he'll have three inches of height and a full five-inch reach advantage on Saturday. Bradley is going to have to get inside on Peterson, or Lamont will be happy to box from the outside.

This could really end up being a terrific fight if Peterson chooses or is forced to engage seriously with Bradley. Bradley is a skilled boxer, but has some of that spark to him; he enjoys a good mix-up, and he handles them well to boot. His underrated battle with Holt from earlier this year saw him get up off the canvas to win a close, very entertaining bout, so we know he has some resilience, too.

Does Peterson? Will Lamont be able to make this leap in class? My gut says he will, and that he's going to be very competitive on Saturday. In fact, my gut is saying he'll be more than competitive. While Bradley should be favored without question, I've got a feeling he loses his "0" in a very good fight on Saturday. I see Peterson confounding him a bit in the early going with his reach, and being quick and good enough to get out of the way of most of Bradley's eventual charges in. Peterson by decision

Darchinyan-Rojas

Darchinyan returns to the 115-pound weight class with his tail tucked between his legs a bit. After being again positioned as an unbeatable steamroller because he'd started using his amateur skills again, combined with his ruthless, aggressive pro style, Darchinyan met a guy at 118 pounds that wasn't afraid of him. Joseph Agbeko squeezed out a fantastic win in July against Darchinyan, ending Vic's Pain Train -- at least for the time being.

Now Darchinyan -- who will defend the WBC belt he never gave up -- takes on another Mexican fighter, Tomas Rojas. Darchinyan has become semi-famous for his liberal trash talking of many Mexican opponents, and for beating them. He demolished Jorge Arce, Cristian Mijares, Victor Burgos and Luis Maldonado when he met them in the ring, and now Rojas says he's fighting for his country's pride.

Don't count out Rojas, a tough veteran who took a fight on October 24 with then-unbeaten South African Evans Mbamba and won. That was a good win, too. Mbamba is no joke. Rojas, 29, will have height (3") and reach (2 1/2") on his side. And though Rojas has suffered 11 pro losses, almost all of them have come against good fighters, and he's only been stopped one time, by Arce in 2007.

That said, and as much as I don't want to downplay Rojas as a fairly tough challenge and a perfectly credible bounce-back fight for Vic, I don't see Tomas having much of a chance to come out with his hand raised. Darchinyan plans to not fight as "stupidly" as he did against Agbeko, which is bad news for Rojas and for most guys, really. Darchinyan beat himself against Joseph Agbeko, and that gives full credit to how good Agbeko is. I'm not sure Rojas is good enough for Darchinyan to fight so poorly that he does beat himself. Darchinyan TKO-7

Tomas Rojas has decided to take a risky October 24 fight with undefeated Evans Mbamba ahead of his December fight on Showtime with Vic Darchinyan, a surprising move that may well not pay off.

Rojas (31-11-1, 22 KO) has been seen by most as a rebound opponent for Darchinyan (32-2-1, 26 KO), who is coming off of a loss to Joseph Agbeko in a step up to bantamweight. Back at junior bantamweight, Darchinyan is the heavy favorite, but Rojas is a fairly live dog, too, a good scrapper who would have a three-inch height advantage.

This new bout is also no easy fight for Rojas. Mbamba (16-0, 8 KO) is a South African who knocked out Devid Lookmahanak in the seventh round last December, his last bout. Lookmahanak is best known as an opponent for Jorge Arce in one of his "pad the record" periods, with Arce being awarded a decision disputed by many.

Not only isn't an easy fight for Rojas, but it's dangerous even if he wins. A bad cut or any minor injury could knock him out of the December 12 fight, and leave Darchinyan and promoter Gary Shaw searching for new opponent on short notice.

The Rojas-Mbamba fight will take place in Veracruz, Mexico. Should Rojas come out of it the winner and uninjured, Darchinyan-Rojas will be a co-feature on Showtime's December 12 card main evented by the Timothy Bradley-Lamont Peterson 140-pound title fight.

With one million people having bought last Saturday night's Mayweather-Marquez fight, the hope now is that a few more eyes might be on the boxing world right now. Frankly speaking, other recent superfights (Hatton-Pacquiao, de la Hoya-Pacquiao, Mayweather-Hatton, de la Hoya-Mayweather) haven't helped feed the idea that too many fans stick around past the casual event. The machine that is the UFC has done a phenomenal job not just bringing fans in, but keeping them interested.

Boxing, while far from the struggling sport it's made out to be often (it's a niche sport), hasn't been able to do that on a large scale. But there's an incredible slate of fights to close out 2009, and don't be fooled into thinking you should only pay attention to the big event fights. There's a lot more out there than just your Mayweathers and Pacquiaos.

September 26: Vitali Klitschko v. Chris Arreola, Heavyweights, HBO

Tomorrow night, Klitschko (37-2, 36 KO) and Arreola (27-0, 24 KO) will battle it out for some form of heavyweight supremacy. Yes, yes, it's hard to keep track of the titles. Vitali's brother, Wladimir, is currently the world heavyweight champion, but with Wlad on the shelf, Vitali is the best out there (and some will argue it's that way even when Wlad is healthy). Arreola is a gutsy, wild-swinging brawler that hopes he has the punch and chin to stand up to the powerful, technically-sound, but 38-year old and creaky Klitschko. It might not last long, and it might not be pretty, but chances are, someone's getting knocked out.

October 17: Arthur Abraham v. Jermain Taylor and Carl Froch v. Andre Dirrell, Super Middleweights, Showtime

The Super Six World Boxing Classic is shaping up to be a breakthrough way of promoting fights, and it's an idea anyone can get behind. Showtime, other major TV networks across the world, and several promoters all pitched in to get six of the best 168-pounders in the world together for a tournament, starting with a round-robin phase, then taking the top four and putting them into a single elimination format. These two fights will be the tournament's first.

Abraham (30-0, 24 KO) will meet what promises to be his toughest test yet from former undisputed middleweight champion Taylor (28-3-1, 17 KO). Taylor's had a rough go of it in recent times, but every one of his three losses have come in good fights, one of them (his first loss to Kelly Pavlik in 2007) a classic. He's as hungry as ever, partially because he knows he needs a good showing. Froch (25-0, 20 KO) keeps defying the skeptics who say he's too slow, having beaten two faster men (Taylor and Jean Pascal) in his last two outings, both in fantastic fights. Young American Dirrell (18-0, 13 KO) is untested but highly skilled.

Continue reading this post »

The weird, head-scratching issue between WBO junior welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley and his December 12 challenger, Lamont Peterson, has been resolved, according to BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno.

You might recall that when the fight went to purse bird and Gary Shaw (Bradley's promoter) won the rights, there wound up being some funky stipulations regarding the purse split for the fighters.

In short, if the fight wound up in California (Bradley's home state), Peterson got a 60-40 advantage; if in Nevada, Bradley got 60-40; anywhere else, the split would be 50-50.

After that, Bradley's team appealed, and they wound up with a 78-22 split. Top Rank (Peterson's promoter) appealed that, seeking 50-50 or at least 60-40 Bradley, and now it looks like the fight is 100% good to go with a 60-40 split in Bradley's favor.

This has been the oddest bunch of crap ever to get to a totally easy decision: Bradley, the defending titlist, should get a 60-40 split. No kidding.

This fight may also benefit from the talk that Peterson (27-0, 13 KO) was wearing out Floyd Mayweather Jr. when the two sparred in Las Vegas prior to Mayweather's fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. Bradley (24-0, 11 KO) is coming off of an August no-decision with Nate Campbell, a fight that ended after three dominant rounds from Bradley due to an injury suffered by Campbell as the result of an accidental headbutt. Those two later almost got into a fistfight after the hearing to change the original ruling from a Bradley TKO victory.

In a Brisbane Times interview, Vic Darchinyan talked about upcoming opponent Tomas Rojas, July opponent Joseph Agbeko, and the man who handed him his first career loss in 2007, Nonito Donaire.

Against Agbeko, Darchinyan believes he made a simple tactical error:

A candid Darchinyan still believes he lost that fight due to a tactical error by trying to take out the Ghanaian with one punch rather than using the skills which overwhelmed Mexican superstars Christian Mijares and Jorge Arce in his two previous bouts.

He's 100% correct. I still think he could and should have won that fight. Agbeko had a lot of advantages, and Darchinyan made a lot of mistakes, yet it was still quite a close fight. No one argues with the Agbeko victory, but a better, smarter Darchinyan does beat him, I think. He got away from the boxing that had made his run of dominant wins over Mijares, Arce and Dmitry Kirilov so impressive, and it hurt him against a bigger guy.

December 12 opponent Tomas Rojas presents a challenge, or at least Darchinyan is giving that possibility lip service:

"He (Rojas) is much taller than me and in the last two years after Arce he has won nearly all his fights by knockout," Darchinyan told AAP.

"He was winning every round of his fight against Arce until he got hit with a good shot in the liver."

Rojas (31-11-1, 22 KO) has won most of his post-Arce fights by knockout, but it's a lot of fluff. His post-Arce record:

So, y'know, big whoop. Darchinyan-Rojas is a rebound fight to get Vic back on TV with what likely will amount to an impressive win. Rojas has lost to Gerry Penalosa, Mijares, Luis Maldonado and Anselmo Moreno, too. He will have about a three-inch height advantage, though.

So what does Vic want to do after Rojas? He wants a rematch with Nonito Donaire:

While Darchinyan's promoter Gary Shaw has consistently ruled out a rematch after an acrimonious split with Donaire, Darchinyan revealed that was no longer an obstacle.

"Gary Shaw was with me in Armenia and we talked about that and I told him how much I wanted the fight and I think he's OK with it now and he's going to make the fight for me," Darchinyan said.

If Donaire can't be tempted into a rematch, Darchinyan said he would like to challenge Mexico's WBO interim bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel.

If Shaw will sign off on it, I'm almost certain Donaire-Darchinyan can be made. This bollocks they've tried to spin before about TV networks not being interested is a pure load. Shaw has gotten Darchinyan on Showtime against far worse opponents, and even less marketable opponents like Agbeko. It's not like Agbeko was some big star, or is now. Showtime is loyal to Shaw and Darchinyan, and if they say, "How about a Donaire rematch?" it will probably happen. And considering Vic's ego got a bucket of water poured on it in July, the money probably won't be an issue now.

Leave it up to Rick Reeno to dig up the dirt, and he appears to have gotten it good this time.  It may just be an internet rumor, and it may just be a smokescreen from one fighter or another, either to build up hype for Mayweather-Marquez or to build up hype for Bradley-Peterson, but this is certainly interesting from the perspective of both fights.

Reeno is reporting that in sparring, Lamont Peterson did his thing and stayed even with Floyd Mayweather in one day of sparring, and pretty much kicked his butt in another.  It's interesting, because Mayweather's camp put out information that Floyd had made Peterson quit in sparring.  Evidently, this was enough for Peterson to fire back.  From Peterson's trainer, Barry Hunter:

Keep in mind, Lamont was out of shape with 18 ounce gloves on.  I have to tell you, it was unbelievable to watch.  I wish I had a tape to show you.  They thought after the first day we weren't coming back but we went right back.  THe second day, Lamont was off the chain.  It was raw, uncut and the things they said to each other you certainly wouldn't want to say in a church.  They, meaning the uncle and father, thought it was the best work Floyd ever got.  The combinations, the skill, it was unbelievable to watch those two.

Of course, Mayweather has had some problems in sparring before, and that's never hurt him on fight night.  There is that famed sparring session between Floyd Mayweather and Paul Spadafora that many believe led to Floyd never facing Spadafora, despite being the other prominent undefeated fighter in his weight class.

For whatever it's worth, former real warrior come-internet warrior Anthony Thompson is saying that he spoke with Lamont himself (who was in Vegas specifically to see Thompson's aborted fight with Grady Brewer), as well as another guy who was at the gym, and that Floyd got his butt kicked. 

For all the hard work and puffery we see on 24/7, there sure are a whole lot of horror stories floating out of both camps for next week's huge matchup.  And if Peterson is beating Floyd Mayweather in sparring, then Timothy Bradley might be in serious trouble.