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It was an evening big fights on Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York in what could easily be termed as “Night Of The Mismatch”.
The evidence: Reigning IBF light welter champ Lamont Peterson, 33-2-1 (17), had a defense against Edgar Santana, 29-5 (20), while middleweight contender Daniel Jacobs, 28-1 (25), fought for the vacant WBA “Regular” belt against Jarrod Fletcher, 18-2 (10), while reigning WBC/WBA light welter king Danny Garcia, 29-0 (17), had a non-title scheduled ten rounder against lightweight Rod Salka, 19-4 (3).
The proof: light hitting stylist Peterson held such a skill advantage that he was able to transform into a slugger against Santana all night, beating the brave but very overmatched New Yorker to the punch the entire bout before the bout was stopped at 2:48 of the tenth. Jacobs knocked Fletcher down in the first round and then went on cruise control until the fifth round when he dropped the Aussie again and the contest was stopped at 2:58. Garcia simply beat up a a smaller, far less experienced opponent.
How did any of these three opponents get to fight for world titles, in two of the instances, or in the third case, to fight a world champion?
Santana is a NABF level fighter and indicative of Peterson’s defenses since become the IBF champion. Anytime the Washington DC has stepped up, he’s been KO’d, by Lucas Matthysse, or won by highly controversial scoring, against Amir Khan.
Peterson is a good fighter but his lack of concussive power and defense will see him lose the title the first time he fights a truly dangerous challenger, which is probably why he was fighting Santana last night.
How did Jarrod Fletcher get to be the WBA mandatory challenger? Because he won the WBA International belt, of course. He’s very, very fortunate the proposed challenge to Gennady Golovkin never materialized. Jacobs is also a good fighter but would be hard pressed to keep his newly minted crown against the other champs at 160 pounds.
And then we come to Garcia. It’s true he’s had six hard fights in a row and was given all he could handle last time out against Mauricio Herrera so was due a stay busy bout. But against a feather-fisted Western Pennsylvania regional level lightweight? At a catch-weight of 142 pounds? Really?
