Matthysse was blind for 10-20 seconds after knockdown from Postol

By Boxing News - 10/05/2015 - Comments

matthysse566(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Tim Fletcher: Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Eric Gomez says that his fighter #2 WBC Lucas Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs) was temporarily blinded for 10-20 seconds after being dropped by a right hand from unbeaten Ukrainian Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) last Saturday night in their fight for the vacant WBC light welterweight title at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Matthysse got hit by a punch that landed to his left eye, and he says he felt total pain in his eye. However, he took a knee rather than falling down in the traditional sense.

“He was blind for about 10 to 20 seconds,” Gomez said to the latimes.com. “It freaked him out, scared him. When he was resting there on his knee, he waited for his sight to come back, but it wouldn’t come back.”

The fight was stopped after referee Jack Reiss gave Matthysse the 10 count. During that time, Matthysse was rubbing his left eye with his glove.

Some boxing fans think that Matthysse quit rather than getting up and taking more punishment from Postol.

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They point out that Matthysse had stopped throwing punches for the most part starting in the 8th round, and he fought like he wasn’t trying as hard as he had in the first seven rounds of the fight. Matthysse was trailing on two of the three cards at the time of the stoppage.

“He got hit right in the [left] socket, lost his vision — obviously, very traumatic,” Gomez said. “For a split second, Lucas said he thought he was blind. He told me, ‘I’ve been hit harder, but when I lost my vision, I was very concerned.’”

It doesn’t matter that the fight ended right there, because Matthysse was no longer throwing punches, and he looked really tired. The knockout actually saved Matthysse from taking more of a beating in the fight.

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Matthysse will be visiting a doctor this Wednesday to be tested to make sure there are no lingering effects from his knockout. Losing his sight for 10-20 seconds after his knockout is an area of concern.

The doctors will need to make sure that Matthysse is okay before they let him return to the ring. If there are anything out of the ordinary in their findings than Matthysse will need to wait before he’s allowed to fight again.

The loss to Postol had huge ramifications for the 33-year-old Matthysse. What was really a negative for Matthysse in losing the fight was the fact that he is now officially out of the running for a big money fight against Manny Pacquiao. Matthysse was considered in the lead spot for the Pacquiao fight at the time of his loss.

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Losing his chance at winning the vacant WBC light welterweight title is less important, because most of the fights that Matthysse could have gotten for winning that title are smaller money fights against the likes of Terence Crawford and the many obscure contenders.

The list to fight Pacquiao is now been reduced to four fighters: Amir Khan, Juan Manuel Marquez, Terence Crawford, and Kell Brook. There’s also a small chance that the winner of the Tim Bradley vs. Brandon Rios could wind up getting the fight.



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