Matthysse looks for Danny Garcia

By Robbie Bannatyne - 05/23/2013 - Comments

matthysse564By Robbie Bannatyne: After light welterweight Lucas Matthysse knocked Lamont Peterson’s lights out in the 3rd round of their encounter on Saturday night in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Paulie Malignaggi, Showtime analyst and current welterweight champion, gushed “It is literally like a bomb exploding every time he lands a punch.”

And much like his punches, Matthysse the man, is also like a bomb that has been waiting to go off.

It seems like the top light-welterweights signed an unofficial treaty to deny Matthysse the chance to take them on for their titles, as his two bouts with Zab Judah and Devon Alexander apart, he spent the vast majority of his career in the wilderness of his homeland, Argentina: boxing’s equivalent of Siberia. Both of those bouts, contested in the aforementioned fighter’s backyards unsurprisingly ended in contentious defeats and, consequently, could have sent his career into the abyss forever.

But after dispatching of Humberto Soto, Ajose Olousegun and Mike Dallas Jr, with customary knockouts that delighted the awestruck American audiences, he started to emerge from the shadows once more. Now, after his obliteration of Lamont Peterson-a genuinely world class fighter- his exile from boxing’s elite has most definitely ended.

The temperature of the fight was raised after a fairly tepid opening, when the Argentine exploded into life and floored Peterson with a neat left hand. Fortunately for the Washington DC native though, there was only 30 seconds or so left in the round and as such, he was able to keep the beast at the bay and make it back to his corner, albeit on fragile foundations. However, the 3rd round began with Matthysse stalking his prey, hunting him down once more with a lethal left hook that badly hurt the IBF champion as he hit the canvas for a 2nd time. Peterson beat the count and was granted one last reprieve by the referee. But it was to be a very short stay of execution as the ‘Machine’ quickly put his wounded victim to the sword, ending Peterson’s misery with a minute of the round remaining.

Matthysse who seemed delighted to quench his bloodlust with another knockout quickly turned his attention to the watching Danny Garcia: the next man for the guillotine.

Feeling understandably invincible after such a commanding, ruthless performance, he issued a declaration of war to Garcia, saying “I’m ready for that fight. I want to fight him.”

The fearless Danny Garcia will probably, against his better judgement, answer Matthysses’ call to arms and put his WBA & WBC titles and unbeaten record at stake in what would be one of the biggest fights of 2013.

Thankfully, Golden Boy badly wants- no needs- the fight too, if only to earn some kudos in the Cold War that they are fighting-unsuccessfully- with Bob Arum’s Top Rank. Oscar De La Hoya’s eagerness to even the scores with his aforementioned sworn enemy has reportedly led to GBP trying to secure a 7th September showdown with Garcia-Matthysse.

So Judgement Day beckons.

And, a win for Lucas Matthysse will have the same cataclysmic consequences for the boxing landscape, as the nuclear bomb had for Hiroshima’s.

But all is fair in love and war. So let battle commence.



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