By Dan Ambrose: Lucas Matthysse (38-4, 35 KOs) has fought only once in the last 2 years since 2015, but that’s not going to keep him from battling #1 WBA Tewa Kiram (38-0, 28 KOs) for the vacant WBA World welterweight title on January 27 at the Forum in Inglewood, California. The fight will be televised on HBO Boxing After Dark at 10:20 p.m. ET/PT.
Matthysse, 35, will be fighting for the WBA title that was recently vacated by Lamont Peterson, who held the title for 8 months without defending it after winning it in February with a 12 round decision win over David Avanesyan. Matthysse is hoping to win the WBA and defend it.
The World Boxing Association may soon order the winner of the Matthysse-Kiram fight to face WBA Super World welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman, since the sanctioning body is supposed to be in the process of reducing the amount of championship belts they have in each division. The WBA is taking their time in doing this though.
Also on the same Matthysse-Kiram card is WBA World lightweight champion Jorge Linares (43-3, 27 KOs) defending his title against Mercito Gesta.
Matthysse is one of the biggest punchers in the welterweight division now, and he’s looking very good now after having been out of the sport for a prolonged period of time. Matthysse returned to boxing last May and stopped Emmanuel Taylor in the 5th round. Taylor was knocked flat in the 3rd and 5th rounds of the fight.
Matthysse was injured 2 years ago in a 10th round knockout loss to Viktor Postol. The knockout was due to Matthysse walking into a right hand shot from Postol that injured his eye. That was a bad injury that kept Matthysse on the shelf for a year and a half before he was able to come back from it and stop Emmanuel Taylor.
“I am honored to be able to fight for a world championship in just my second fight at welterweight,” said Matthysse. “I understand I am facing a younger, undefeated opponent, but I am confident that ‘The Machine’ will emerge victorious.”
Matthysse’s opponent is little known 25-year-old Kiram from Thailand. Like a lot of fighters from Thailand, Kiram has fought a lot of local fighters that aren’t well-known. It’s difficult to know how good Kiram is because his resume is filled with obscure names. Kiram does have one well-known name on his resume in 37-year-old Kaizer Mabuza (26-15-3, 16 KOs).
Kiram defeated Mabuza by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2015. Besides Mabuza, the other fighters that Kiram has fought haven’t been world class guys. Mabuza is no longer a world class fighter. He’s a journeyman at this stage of his career.
Kiram has 38 fights on his resume. He seems to be heading towards breaking Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 record. With any luck, Kiram might someday beat the record if he can pick up the WBA title and hold onto it for a long enough amount of time to be creating history.
“I understand not many people know me in the U.S., but they are in for a big surprise on Jan. 27,” Kiram.
You never know. Kiram could be one of those big fish in a small fish bowl type fighter. I kind of doubt it though. If Kiram was as good as his record would have you believe, he would have been discovered a long time ago and talked about and brought to the U.S or some other foreign country to make him a star.