By Manuel Perez: In what appeared to be a case of a mistaken ruling by the referee, the fight between unbeaten light welterweight contender Lucas Martin Matthysse (22-0, 21 KOs) and Rogelio Castaneda Jr. (24-14-3, 8 KOs) was ruled a no decision after Castaneda received a nasty cut over his right eye in the 3rd round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Friday night at the Quick Trip Ballpark, in Grand Prairie, Texas. The referee then stopped the action, had the cut looked at by the ringside doctor, who after examining it advised for the fight to be stopped.
The referee Jesse Reyes then stopped the bout at 0:50 of the 3rd round, but instead of giving Matthysse a 3rd round TKO victory, which he probably should have been given considering that the cut appeared to have been caused by a left hook, the referee ruled that the cut had been caused by a head butt. This meant that the fight was a no decision. It’s hard to tell what the referee was seeing for him to make the decision, because neither fighter’s heads appeared to come even close to making contact before the cut occurred.
The only contact that was made just prior to the cut, however, was big sweeping left hook from Matthysse that landed directly above the right eye of Castaneda, snapping his head back, and instantly producing blood. One would hope that this fight will be appealed, because it seems as if the wrong verdict was given in his fight.
Matthysse, 25, a knockout artist from Argentina, ranked #6 in the WBO light welterweight division, got off to a slow start in the first round. He mostly followed Castaneda around, absorbing a lot of jabs to the head and looking for one big punch to land. Castaneda moved constantly, throwing nice jabs and looking much better than the 14 losses on his record. Indeed, he looked measurably better than the crude slugging Matthysse, who for his part, missed often with wild swings in the round, looking as if he were trying to end the fight with one punch. His right hand wasn’t much of a weapon, but once Matthysse landed several big left hooks near the end of the round, I could understand why he has so many knockouts on his resume.
In the second round, Matthysse began to connect with much more regularity as he landed big left hooks to the body and head, going from top to bottom. Castaneda, looking uncomfortable with the power shots he was getting hit with, started moving more, flicking his jab and trying to prevent from getting hit as much as possible by Matthysse’s big shots. He was somewhat effective at this for a brief stretch in the round, but then Matthysse began cutting off the ring and nailing him to the body and head with wide hooks. With the power that he was throwing his shots with, I couldn’t see Castaneda taking the shots for more than a few more rounds, if that, without going down.
In the 3rd round, Matthysse continued pursuing Castaneda, nailing him with big hooks to the head, and then to the body. He followed him to the ropes where he landed a big sweeping left hook that landed on Castaneda’s right eye, causing his head to snap back. Instantly, blood began to pour from a cut that had opened above Castaneda’s right eye. The referee Jesse Reyes then stopped the action, walked Castaneda over the ringside doctor, and had him examine it.
The cut was far too long and deep for it to be allowed to continue, however, and the doctor recommended that the fight be stopped. Regrettably, the referee then, perhaps due to being shielded from the left hook that landed just prior to the cut opening up, ruled that the cut had been caused by a clash of heads rather than a punch. This ruling turned the fight into no decision because the fight hadn’t gone beyond the 3rd round.