peel away

Six minutes later, Mertesacker peeled away from Gallas to meet Walcott's right-wing cross with a superb header.

All the paint had peeled away.

Though mixed martial arts has successfully peeled away fans from boxing (a sport that’s lost any compelling champions and much of its dignity) and WWE (a “sport” that’s always existed in quotation marks) it’s had trouble shaking its reputation as “human cockfighting.”