Boxing’s first high-profile championship fight of 2018 saw IBF welterweight titleholder Errol Spence Jr (23-0, 20 KOs) beat up former junior welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (35-4-1, 17 KOs) in front of just over 12,000 fans at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. This was Spence’s first defense of his title, eight months after dethroning Kell Brook in Brook’s hometown of Sheffield, England.
Spence knocked Peterson down in round 5, finishing off a combination with a left hand to the side of Lamont’s head. Already well behind on the scorecards, Peterson’s trainer Barry Hunter had indicated to Peterson that he had too much heart for his own good, and warned that he’s stop the fight if things didn’t get better.