upsets, such as wins over Corey Sanders and Paea Wolfgramm or split draw against Ray Mercer. Peter won the bout by unanimous decision. Peter had his next fight 19 days later against Julius Joiner (2–0–1, 1 KOs). This was Peter's first televised fight, as it was aired on ESPN2. The bout was on the undercard of the event that had James Toney facing Sione Asipeli and Lamont Pearson facing Orlando Salido. Joiner did not come out for the second round, prompting the referee to declare Peter the winner by corner retirement. Peter had three more fights in 2002, winning each by second-round stoppage and having the former two televised by ESPN2. Afterwards Peter did not enter the ring for 8 months before facing Dale Crowe for the WBC's Youth heavyweight title. 26-year old Crowe had a 24–6–2 (15 KOs) record coming into the fight and had only been stopped by DaVarryl Williamson. Crowe became notorious after the fight against former world heavyweight champion Greg Page, in which he pushed Page against the ropes, which resulted in Page ending up partially paralyzed. This was the first professional fight in Peter's career scheduled for 10 rounds. The event was aired on ESPN2. Peter won every round on all scorecards before stopping Crowe in the fourth round. Peter returned to the ring three months later, facing Lyle McDowell (27–9–1, 18 KOs) on June 21, 2003 in a fight televised by HBO as part of the card that saw Lennox Lewis facing Vitali Klitschko in the main event. Peter stopped McDowell in the fourth round. Peter finished the year with two second-round stoppages, boosting his record to 16 wins in 16 fights, with 15 of them inside the distance. He signed to fight Lawrence Clay-Bey (18–2, 13 KOs) in December in a bout televised by ESPN, however Clay-Bey pulled out of the fight due to injury. Dino Duva accused Clay-Bey of faking an injury to avoid fighting Samuel Peter. Peter vs. Shufford, Pudar After scoring two back-to-back stoppage wins against Chris Isaac and Jose Arimatea da Silva, with the former being the first time Peter went past fifth round, Peter took a big step up in competition when he faced former WBO world heavyweight title challenger Charles Shufford on May 17, 2004. This was the first time Peter was in the main event of a card. The event was the third installment of Heavyweight