By Dan Ambrose: 29-year-old Lucas Matthysse (31-2, 29 KO’s) looked nothing short of sensational last night in overpowering a very good fighter in Humberto Soto (58-8-2, 34 KO’s) in stopping the Mexican warrior in the 5th round of a scheduled 10 round bout at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

In the 5th round, Matthysse caught a slightly worn down Soto with a hard left hand in close, followed by big looking overhand right that clearly hurt Soto. The shot sent Soto back-peddling towards the ropes where Matthysse then landed one more finishing right hand to the head that sent Soto down. To his credit, Soto beat the count and the round ended right after that. However, Soto was badly hurt and in no position to continue fighting. The fight was stopped by his observant trainer, who obviously saw that Soto would have been destroyed had he came out for another round.

A lot of boxing fans and writers had picked the more experienced and proven Soto to win this fight, as Matthysse had already failed in two recent attempts at facing high level opposition in losses to Zab Judah and Devon Alexander.

What’s so surprising about Matthysse’s win was how easily he made it look. While Soto was fighting at full bore in the first four rounds, Matthysse seemed to be taking it easy focusing more on just trying to land hard shots. He wasn’t bothered by Soto’s nonexistent power, and either blocked or ducked most of what Soto could offer up.

The fight was still close going into the 4th round. In that round, Matthysse landed some hard body shots and was able to punish Soto on the inside. Soto was having problems with Matthysse’s big shots while on the outside, and it looked like he made a decision to try and smother Matthysse in close. This didn’t work out well at all for Soto, as Matthysse showed that he could punch with big power even close. Numerous times in the 4th, Matthysse landed big shots at close range and those big punches seemed to take the air out of Soto. He looked worn out and worried ad the fight went to the 5th.

Soto attempted to flurry on Matthysse at the start of the 5th round, but it had no affect on Matthysse. He waited out Soto’s flurry of shots and then came storming back with a series of really hard shots that eventually led to Matthysse knocking Soto down on the canvas.

Overall, it was a good performance from Matthysse. He showed that he can beat an old veteran who’s slipped as couple of notches. It kind of reminded me of how Kostya Tazyu beat an old Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. years ago. Matthysse was very calm the same way Tszyu was. It was as if he knew he was fighting beneath him and he wasn’t worried at all about taking him out.