Matthysse will have problems with Viktor Postol’s size and reach advantage

By Boxing News - 08/07/2015 - Comments

MatthyssePostolLAPC_Hoganphotos6(Photo Credit: Golden Boy Promotions) By Allan Fox: At yesterday’s kickoff press conference between #2 WBC light welterweight contender Lucas Matthysse (37-3, 34 KOs) and #1 WBC Viktor Postol (27-0, 11 KOs) the one thing that immediately jumped out at you was the huge height advantage that the 5’11” Postol had over the 5’6 ½” Matthsse.

It’s unclear how Matthysse is going to be able to deal with Postol’s 4 ½” height advantage when the two fighters get inside the ring on October 3rd to fight for the vacant WBC light welterweight title on Showtime Championship Boxing from the StubHub Center, in Carson, California.

If Matthysse hasn’t thought a lot about how much size he’s giving up in this fight in the past, then he’s going to be forced to think about it when he gets inside the ring with this monstrously tall Postol. This is potentially going to be a real nightmare for Matthysse to try and deal with. If you remember how many problems Matthysse had in dealing with the 5’8 1/2″ Danny Garcia’s height and reach advantage in their fight in 2013. This is going to be much worse for Matthysse because Postol prefers to fight on the outside and he’s very hard to hit.

Postol has trainer Freddie Roach on his side and he’s going to know exactly how Postol can use his reach against the shorter Matthysse. It’s going to extremely difficult for Matthysse to do anything in the ring with Postil, because Roach will have a variety of plans for Postol to employ to keep Matthysse off balance.

Unlike Manny Pacquiao, who generally always fights the same way no matter what is told to him in his corner, Postol gives you variety of looks and he’s very capable of following directions given to him. This means that if Roach has come up with a plan-A, B, C, D, E & F, Postol is going to be able to adapt in the ring to give Matthysse major problems.

“Thank you to ELITE Boxing, Golden Boy Promotions, Top Rank, HBO and my trainers, Freddie Roach. It’s going to be a great event,” Postil said at the kickoff press conference. “Los Angeles is a second home to me; it’s where my training camp is. I know that Lucas will have more fans there, but it makes me happy to know I will have support there, too on fight night.”

Matthysse would have been better off fighting someone else for one of the titles. Matthysse should have gone for the IBF title that was recently stripped from Lamont Peterson by facing Cesar Cuenca, or the WBC “regular” title that Jessie Vargas has to give up when he fought Tim Bradley recently for the interim WBO welterweight title.

Given that Matthysse struggled badly with the height and reach of Danny Garcia two years ago without being able to solve it, I think there’s a very good chance that Matthysse will do even worse against the much taller Postol, who knows how to use his size to his advantage against shorter fighters like Matthysse.



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