Anthony Peterson, J'Leon Love Pick Up Wins on DC Card

By David Greisman and Cliff Rold, live from ringside

Washington, DC - 31-year old lightweight Anthony Peterson (37-1, 24 KO), 137 ¾, of Washington, DC, got ten rounds of good work but victory was never in doubt as he ground away at 32-year old Ghanaian Samuel Neequaye (22-2, 15 KO), 138 ½, of Baltimore, Maryland, for a ten round unanimous decision.

Neequaye was making only his second start since being stopped in the second by Fernando Carcamo in 2014’s “Boxcino” lightweight tournament. Peterson was making only his seventh start since a 2010 loss to Brandon Rios. The referee was Brent Bovell.

An early outburst of offense from Neequaye in the first saw Peterson respond with a flush, hurting right hand. Peterson would rock Neequaye with more right hands in the final thirty seconds. It didn’t force Neequaye into a shell in the second. Despite the affect each Peterson right appeared to have, Neequaye came back firing, jabbing, lobbing right hands of his own. As round two wore on, Neequaye’s persistence was working.

More grinding two-way action defined the third with only a brief pause taken to repair loose tape on the glove of Peterson.  In the final ten seconds, a Peterson shot hurt Neequaye but again the Ghanaian kept his feet and threw back. Neequaye finally went down in the fourth, but on a slip. Both men were digging to the head and body and a mouse developed under the left eye of Peterson.

A low blow in the final minute of the fifth gave Neequaye a moment’s rest in a round where he was taking the heavier fire. Bovell warned Peterson to keep them up. For the next two rounds he did, working the body of Neequaye in all the legal spots and looking for finishing shots upstairs.

Peterson kept piling up points as the fight pressed towards the finish but Neequaye never stopped trying. The fight ended as it started, both men on their feet and willing to trade. The crowd gave them a round of applause for an earnest ten rounds. Peterson got the decision by scores of 97-93, 96-94, and a shutout 100-90.

- J’Leon Love scored an abrupt fifth-round technical knockout of Michael Gbenga when the fight was stopped in Gbenga’s corner after the fifth round. Gbenga wasn’t winning, but he was putting the occasional leather on Love, including a good right uppercut in the fifth. Love soon scored with a right uppercut of his own and followed with enough that Gbenga’s glove touched the canvas, which the referee rightly ruled a knockdown. Gbenga didn’t appear badly hurt and survived the round, but the bout was nevertheless soon over.

Love, a 28-year-old super middleweight originally from Michigan but now fighting out of Las Vegas, moves to 22-1 with 12 KOs. This was his fourth straight win since a stunning stoppage loss to Rogelio “Porky” Medina in 2014. Gbenga, 36, of Accra, Ghana, is now either 17-25 with 16 KOs if you go by the official bout sheet or 21-25 with 20 KOs if you go by BoxRec.

 - Middleweight prospect Demond Nicholson had scored knockouts in all of his wins before but had to settle for going the distance with an eight-round unanimous decision over Joshua Okine. The scores were 80-72, 79-72 and 78-74.

Nicholson, 23, of Laurel, Maryland, is now 16-1 with 15 KOs if you go by the official bout sheet or 17-1 with 16 KOs if you go by BoxRec. Okine, 36, of Accra, Ghana, is now 22-5 with 15 KOs if you go by the official bout sheet or 28-6-1 with 17 KOs if you go by BoxRec.

- Lightweight prospect Patrick Harris scored a second-round technical knockout of Dedrick Bell. The end came at 1:03.

Harris, 21, of Hyattsville, Maryland, is now either 8-0 with 5 KOs according to the official bout sheet or 9-0 with 6 KOs according to BoxRec. Bell, 31, of Memphis, Tennessee, is now 12-28-1.

- Welterweight prospect Shyngyskhan Tazhibay won a unanimous decision over Riarus Dudley. One judge had the bout 40-36 while the other two had it 39-37.

Tazhibay, a 24-year-old from Kazakhstan, is now 3-0 with 2 KOs. Dudley, 23, of Georgia, suffered his first loss and is now 2-1-1 with 2 KOs.

In the opening bout, junior lightweight Gerald Tucker won a unanimous decision over Antoney Napunyi. All three judges saw the bout 40-36.

Tucker, a 37-year-old fighting from Cincinnati for the first time since 2001, moves to 6-0-1 with 3 KOs. Napunyi, a 33-year-old from Kenya and now billed out of Florida, falls to 14-18 with 7 KOs, per BoxRec, or 10-15 according to the official bout sheet. If you go by BoxRec, he has now lost 14 in a row.