Sam, or Samuel, Peter never managed to hit the real heights plenty of excited fans and some experts felt he would reach, but, boy, on his day, or on his best night, “The Nigerian Nightmare” sure could score a knockout capable of chilling the blood. It was on this day 20 years ago, when an unbeaten Peter met his stiffest test yet. On paper, at least.
Jeremy Williams, who had put together a 6-0-1 run going in, tasted the full effects of Peter’s thunderous power.
The two met at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas, and the vacant NABF heavyweight belt was on the line. Peter, already being written about by some fanciful scribes as a modern day Sonny Liston, or a new George Foreman, produced a crushing, one-punch KO that temporarily made such lofty comparisons seem somewhat realistic.
Peter, perfect at 20-0(17) lit us all up with a highlight reel KO. Sam, stocky, aggressive, and hungry, was known at the time for his big right hand. Williams, who had cut his teeth in fights with the likes of Marion Wilson, Larry Donald, Bert Cooper, Jesse Ferguson, Henry Akinwande, and Maurice Harris, was looking for the right hand bomb. Instead, taken unawares, Williams was whacked by a wicked left hook. To the head. Flush. Devastatingly so.
Williams was out before he hit the floor in round two, he was on his back, stretched out. The referee waved it off instantly, the head-swivelling shot from hell instantaneously sending out messages to the heavyweight division as quickly as it had stopped all communication from the stricken fighter’s brain to his body.
Peter, on this night, looked for all the world like a world-beater. He looked like a future heavyweight king.
Peter did go on to win a belt, but he never did take his at one time perceived place as the next heavyweight destroyer. But Peter could bang, he could crack – with both hands – and Peter still to this day has those fans who saw him dish out some nasty brutality wondering what might have been.
As it is right now, with Mike Tyson having recently entered the ring, and with Ike Ibeabuchi reportedly set to do so before the end of the year, who knows, maybe the Samuel Peter story is not quite over yet……
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