Lamont Peterson outworks, outpoints David Avanesyan

Photo by Stephanie Trapp / SHOWTIME

Feb

Former junior welterweight titleholder Lamont Peterson shook off more than a year’s worth of ring rust during a gritty, hotly contested 12-round welterweight bout against David Avanesyan, which he won by decision.

Peterson (35-3-1, 17 knockouts), a 32-year-old veteran from Washington, D.C., won by scores of 116-112 (twice) and 115-113 on the undercard of the Adrian Broner-Adrien Granados fight on Saturday in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Peterson, who picked up the “regular” WBA title with the Showtime-televised victory, had not fought since scoring a controversial 10-round majority decision over then-unbeaten welterweight fringe contender Felix Diaz in October 2015. However, the hard-grinding technician didn’t allow his inactivity to hold him back against Avanesyan (22-2-1, 11 KOs), a 28-year-old Russian-born Armenian boxer-brawler.

The two boxed tit for tat through the first five rounds of the bout but beginning in Round 6, Peterson and Avanesyan waged an entertaining war of infighting, opting to stand and trade heavy shots, most of which were aimed to each others’ bodies. The infighting-body-punching clinic lasted until the final bell but Peterson often pushed forward and dug a littler harder to his opponent’s mid-section, which enabled him to sweep the last three rounds on the scorecards of all three official judges.