Samuel Peter (The Nigerian Nightmare) is the best new hope for the future of the heavyweight division. He is an exciting new prospect with feverish punching power in both hands. This Saturday he stepped into the ring against another promising fighter Yanqui Diaz, who in contrast to Peter is a more finesse fighter who relies more on his boxing skills than on punching power.

The fight began as expected with Peter on the offensive and Diaz cautious, trying to use movement to stay away from Peter’s big punches. Unfortunately for Yanqui Diaz the fight took place in a 16.5 foot ring which certainly limited his ability to move around the ring safely out of the range of Peter’s punches. Shortly after the bell a left-right combination hurt Diaz who wisely took a knee to give himself time to recover. Peter showed great discipline as he did not try to force a knockout, but instead took his time focusing on throwing vicious left hooks to the body of Diaz.

In round 2 Diaz was out-boxing Peter for the entire round, moving side to side and consistently beating him to the punch. But right before the bell a Peter right hand to the body dropped Diaz who helplessly fell back into the ropes. At this point Peter took another shot at Diaz and was penalized two points for hitting a defenseless fighter who was already ruled down by the referee. In round three Diaz was forced to trade more punches than he would have liked, partially limited by the size of the ring and visibly beginning to look more fatigued he had no choice but to stand and fight. As Diaz got more fatigued he began to trade more and more, giving Peter more opportunities to land his big punches.

Despite landing the more accurate punches it was painfully obvious that Diaz lacked the punching power to discourage the onslaught of Sam Peter. In round 4 the fatigued Diaz was all but finished after 5 straight right hands from Peter chopped him down to the canvas. Diaz got off the canvas only to go down again from a left hook shot to the body. Personally I believe the fight should have been stopped at this juncture but unfortunately for Diaz the fight continued into the fifth round.