In this video interview with Fight Hub TV, immediately following his disappointing loss to Sergey Lipinets last night, Lamont Peterson talks a little about the fight and why he knows now is the right time to walk away from boxing. Check it out...
Peterson on how he felt the fight was going against Lipinets:
“The fight was going well. Just, you know, part of fighting — things can be going one way and then switch on you. I think it was a close fight. You know, I thought I was a tad bit ahead but, uh, things happened the way they happened.”
On why he believes Lipinets started coming on strong towards the end of the fight:
“I guess he was just determined to win. He knew he was in my hometown, I’m sure that gave him motivation to keep pushing through. I really can’t tell you why, I guess that’s something you’ve got to ask him.”
On what his game plan was entering the fight:
“I was expecting to keep him at range but not back up too much where it feels as though he’s putting pressure on me, but me putting pressure on him but not getting too close. I think it was working fairly well early on. I was able to land my jab but, things happened the way they happened.”
On what he thinks caused the momentum shift in the fight:
“Nothing that I can pick up on. I guess it happened the way it happened.”
On if he was surprised that Lipinets was able to take his body attack:
“Not really. He’s always shown to be pretty tough, pretty durable. So I expected him to hold up for 12 rounds.”
On how he’s feeling physically:
“Physically I feel fine. But just because I feel fine — what I’m seeing is you’re probably always gonna feel fine. A lot fighters as they age, they say they feel fine, and that’s probably the reason they still get in the ring. But at the end of the day you’ve got to be honest with yourself. If I felt fine then I feel like that’s a fight I should’ve won. So because I didn’t I know it’s probably something else. And I’ll just take that and go home with it.”
On if the thought of a possible retirement was on his mind heading into the fight:
“Not so much so on my mind. Like I said, I felt good so I thought that everything would be fine. But I know if it wasn’t, then yes.”
On if he thinks he needs some more time to reconsider retirement:
“These types of decisions, when you make ‘em you gotta stick with ‘em. Because you’ve made this decision for a reason. I’m not gonna battle with this. I’m pretty good at when I say something, I stick to it. And this is what’s gonna happen, I won’t fight again.
“...Boxing has definitely done a lot for me. It gave me a chance to travel the world, go a lot of places that I’ve never imagined going. I’m sure if I wasn’t boxing I’d probably be stuck in this area. I’m happy and blessed that boxing has shown me a lot about life. But I knew — we all know — you can’t box forever. I definitely know that it’s time to, you know, move on. And just take the things I’ve learned from boxing and apply it to the next step.”
On what he plans to do next:
“I’m not sure about training, a lot of people want me to. My brother said that he want me to help him out so I’ll definitely do that — anything he asks I’ll definitely do so...But I don’t really see me being a trainer but who knows. We’ll see...”