PBC on FS1 results: Anthony Peterson and Argenis Mendez fight to split draw

Anthony Peterson and former super featherweight titleholder Argenis Mendez fought to a split draw tonight on FS1, with judges giving one card to each man on a tally of 96-94, and the third coming back 95-95.

BLH had the fight 96-94 Peterson and 95-95, so by our view the judges did a fine job, and the result is entirely fair.

This was a close fight, one that Peterson (37-1-1, 24 KO) may have let slip away in the last few rounds from one perspective, and one that Mendez (25-5-2, 12 KO) may have snatched from the jaws of defeat from another.

The 34-year-old Peterson, who hasn’t really had a serious fight since his meltdown DQ loss to Brandon Rios in 2010, showed off the sort of skills that at one time made him a genuine lightweight prospect, but he also just didn’t close this thing out, and the 32-year-old Mendez hung around and evened it up in the end.

“I’m not that disappointed, because I didn’t lose,” Peterson said after the fight. “The judges saw it a draw. I’m not mad about it.”

Mendez was a bit more upset by the decision.

“The public knows, boxing knows that I won this fight,” he said to boos from the local, very pro-Peterson crowd. “I’m going to keep going.”

On the surface, the punch stats favored Peterson, who landed 137 of 537 (26%) total punches compared to 83 of 377 (22%) total punches from Mendez. But power punches were much closer, with Peterson at 50 of 186 (27%) to Mendez’s 44 of 203 (22%). That’s not to say that Peterson’s big edge in jabs (87-39) shouldn’t mean anything, but the more telling power blows did come from Mendez, and adding it all up, the draw was perfectly reasonable.