By Dan Ambrose: In a fight of the year candidate, Lucas Matthysse (35-3, 33 KO’s) showed incredible heart to get up off the deck twice to stop the game John Molina (27-4, 22 KO’s) in the 11th on Saturday night at the StubHub Center, in Carson, California, USA. Matthysse knocked Molina down three times in the fight in dropping him in the 8th, 10th and 11th rounds.
The fight was halted at the start of the 11th after Matthysee cornered a badly beaten Molina up against the ropes and flurried on him until he hit the canvas. The referee Pat Russell then stepped in and halted the bout with Molina still down on his back.
Matthysse was cut badly on the side of his left eye in the 3rd round from a head-clash. The cut made Matthysse fight even harder, as he controlled rounds 3 and 4.
You can make a good argument that the fight should have been halted during the 10th round, because Molina took some awful punishment during the round. Molina was knocked down by Matthysse late in the round, and he took some really bad shots. Matthysse started flurrying on Molina in the last 30 seconds and it was all one-way traffic.
After the round ended, Molina looked in bad shape as he walked back to his corner. In between rounds the ringside doctor spent a lot of talking to Molina and checking him out to see if he was okay. Referee Pat Russell told Molina that he had to show him something in the 11th round otherwise he was going to halt the fight. Thankfully, Matthysse took it out of the referee and ringside doctor’s hands by catching Molina up against the ropes and bludgeoning him to the canvas with tremendous shots.
Molina dropped Matthysse with right hands in the 2nd and 5th rounds. In the 2nd, Molina hit Matthysse with a slapping right hand that caught him while he was pulling away. Molina’s knockdown in the 5th came from a right to the back of the head.
The knockdowns by Molina changed the complexity of the fight, as Matthysse really went after Molina from 5th round and gave him a real beating. Molina was only able to land occasionally from rounds 6-11, as he was getting really nailed by vicious shots from Matthysse.
Matthysse’s knockdown in the 8th round was caused by a push. However, Molina had taken so much punishment in the ring that referee Pat Russell ruled it as a knockdown anyway.
Molina would continue take big punishment in rounds 9 and 10. Those very one-sided rounds with Matthysse hitting Molina with everything he had, and Molina just taking the shots one after another. It was a real beat down from rounds 8-11.
Molina said after the fight “I would love to fight Matthysse again. I wanted to continue. I think it was a great fight, and I think we should do it again.”
After the fight Matthysse said he wants a rematch with Danny Garcia. It’s doubtful Garcia will give him the rematch because he’s been reluctant to get back in the ring with Matthysse.
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