By Thomas Gerbasi

Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York - IBF junior welterweight champion Lamont Peterson got mean in his co-main event against Edgar Santana, punishing the challenger from New York throughout their bout before the fight was stopped in the 10th round.

“I was able to show a lot of dimensions to my game,” said Washington, D.C.’s Peterson, now 33-2-1 with 17 KOs.

The 35-year-old Santana (29-5, 20 KOs) gave a good accounting of himself in the opening two rounds as he pressed the action and used an awkward style that kept the slow-starting Peterson from unleashing his offensive attack.

By the third, Peterson was digging to the body and getting Santana’s attention, and round four saw several good back and forth exchanges at close quarters, both digging in with hooks to the midsection.

Peterson took control in round five, with his thudding body work setting up a big shot upstairs that stunned Santana for the first time in the fight. Peterson continued to stay in the trenches, and his punishing shots had changed the complexion of the fight.

There was more of the same in rounds six through eight, Santana not giving in, but not threatening the champion either as he absorbed the brutal body attack.

In the ninth, Santana’s offense dwindled even further as Peterson stepped it up in an effort to close the show, and while he didn’t get it done in that stanza, a round later it was over, as the steady stream of punishment was enough for Santana’s corner to ask for a stoppage, with referee Pete Santiago stepping in at the 2:48 mark.