By David P. Greisman

DC Armory, Washington, District of Columbia - IBF junior welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 16KOs) stopped mandatory challenger Kendall Holt (28-6, 16KOs) in the eight round. Peterson dropped Holt with a right hand in the fourth and had him in serious trouble. he continued to give Holt a beating in the fifth. In the sixth round, Holt took more damage as Peterson threw an army of shots that sent him down against the ropes. He beat the count but barely survived the round. In the eught round, Peterson let his hands go once again and punished Holt against the ropes. This time referee Tony Weeks jumped in to wave it off.

It is often said that the punch that hurts most is the one that you don’t see coming. That’s particularly true when that punch is a body shot. And it was a body shot that put junior featherweight Jesus Hernandez down on one knee for the count, giving Roman Morales a fifth-round knockout win on the televised co-feature of ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights.”

The bout ended 2 minutes and 59 seconds into the round. Morales had thrown a left, followed by a right to the body, and then another left — but it was the body shot that produced a delayed reaction in Hernandez.

That brought to an end a fight that Morales was controlling. Though Hernandez had been gamely trading, Morales was landing more often and more cleanly in their exchanges. At other times, he would move away from the more aggressive Hernandez, only to come forward with a salvo of shots.

The knockout blow was the second flooring of the fight. Morales had also put Hernandez down in the fourth round, that time as a result of a one-two combination.

Morales, 21, of San Ardo, Calif., improves to 15-0 with 8 knockouts. Hernandez, 24, of Huntington Park, Calif., falls to 10-1-3 with 2 knockouts.

Elvin Sanchez battled back from a second-round knockdown to score a surprising stoppage one round later over previously undefeated cruiserweight Venroy July. The bout was waved off by the referee 2 minutes and 55 seconds into the round.

July had put Sanchez down in the second with a combination of a left uppercut and right hook. But Sanchez survived, wobbled July in the third — and then seemed to have let July get his legs back before landing a southpaw right hook that put July down hard. July got up, but the referee didn’t like what he saw and called a halt to the bout.

Sanchez, 32, of Paterson, N.J., is now 6-2-1 with 5 KOs. July, 29, of Suitland, Md., is now 13-1-2 with 6 KOs.

Danny Kelly scored a thudding first-round knockout over Schyuler Marshall — thudding because Marshall’s 309-pound frame crashed backward to the canvas with visible and audible force.

The time of the stoppage came at 2 minutes and 11 seconds, following a jab and a right cross from Kelly. Marshall struggled to get up and failed, leading the referee to wave off the bout.

Kelly, 21, of Washington, D.C., improves to 3-0 with 3 knockouts. Marshall, 29, falls — literally — to 1-3 with 1 knockout.

Both Gervonta Davis and Desi Williams were looking for their first pro victory — the difference being that Davis is a prospect and Williams is a designated opponent. Davis needed 1 minute and 29 seconds to knock Williams down twice on left hands, scoring a first-round knockout.

Davis did appear to hit Williams while he was down after the second flooring, but the referee didn’t call a foul. The 18-year-old from Baltimore is now 1-0 (1 knockout). Williams, 35, of Wilson, N.C., is now 0-5.

In an opening bout that was far more competitive and far more entertaining than expected, Raul Lopez defeated DeWayne Wisdom by unanimous decision.The scorecards were 59-55 (twice) and 58-56.

What those scorecards don’t reveal is how difficult a bout Wisdom — who had lost far more than he had won — gave Lopez, who saw the entire complexion of the bout change in the second round. Lopez had knocked Wisdom down early in the second with a sustained body attack, only to get knocked down hard at the end of that same stanza, when Wisdom landed a left hook as Lopez was pulling straight back.

Wisdom had courage and heart, but he wasn’t able to convince the judges to give him a majority of the rounds.  Lopez, 22, of Bronx, N.Y., improves to 9-1-1 with 4 knockouts. Wisdom, 25, of Indianapolis, falls to 2-10 with 1 knockout.

The final bout of the evening saw welterweight David Grayton scored a second-round knockout of Gregory Coverson Jr. Grayton knocked Coverson down in the first round, and then subsequently battered him until Coverson decided to take a knee and stay down until the 2:59 mark of the second round. Grayton, of Washington, D.C., is now 3-0 (3 knockouts), while Coverson, of Detroit, is now 3-5 (2 knockouts).