By Chris Williams: Lucas Matthysse (38-4, 35 KOs) says he wants to fight Danny Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) to get a chance to avenge his loss to him in 2013 if he defeats #1 WBA Tewa Kiram (38-0, 28 KOs) in their fight for the vacant WBA ‘regular’ welterweight title on January 27 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Matthysse, 35, lost an ugly 12 round unanimous decision to Danny Garcia on September 14, 2013.
Matthysse suffered an eye injury during the fight that limited his effectiveness. Garcia used a variety of tactics to beat Garcia. The No.1 tactic Garcia used was throwing low blows. He hit Matthysse numerous times with low blows in the fight. The shots seemed to take energy out of Matthysse. Whether the low blows were intentional are not is unclear.
“If I win this fight I would like to have a fight with Danny Garcia and have a very important fight. I would always like that rematch!” said Matthysse to Hoy Deportes.
It’s doubtful that Danny Garcia will bother facing Matthysse again. Rematches aren’t Garcia’s style. When he beats someone, he doesn’t want to fight them again, even when the win is controversial like in his victory over Mauricio Herrera in March 2015. Many boxing fans saw Garcia lose that fight, but he was given a 12 round majority decision over the less popular Herrera.
Matthysse should forget about Danny Garcia, because that ship has sailed. Garcia wants the easy fight against Rios, who has shown himself to be a punching bag when facing good opposition, and then he wants to face Thurman in a rematch. If Garcia loses that fight too, which I believe will happen, then he might want to go for the secondary WBA 147 lb. belt that Matthysse and Kiram will be fighting over on January 27. That’s pretty much the only chance Garcia will have at winning a title at that point.
Garcia probably won’t fight IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence, and he definitely won’t go after the WBO welterweight title that is held by the Top Rank promoted Jeff Horn. If the World Boxing Association doesn’t do away with the WBA ‘regular’ 147 lb. title that is about to be fought over by Matthysse and Kiram, then Garcia will probably go after the winner of that fight at some point in 2019 as a last resort in order to become a paper champion.
If Matthysse fights Garcia again, he’s going to need to figure out how to deal with the low blows. He didn’t deal with it last time, and the referee Tony Weeks didn’t lift a finger to control the fouls until the 12th round. Matthysse will either need to get in the gutter with Garcia to force him to stop fouling him by playing a similar roughhouse style or he’ll have to shame the referee by playing to the crowd when he’s hit low. Sometimes fighters have to shame the referee by letting the boxing fans know that the referee isn’t doing his job. Weeks was pretty much useless in the Garcia-Matthysse fight. He didn’t step in to control the fouling by Garcia until the fight was in the bag in the 12th.
Danny Garcia lost his last fight to WBA welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman by a 12 round split decision on March 4. Garcia took the rest of 2017 off despite being offered a world title shot against IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. Garcia will be fighting on February 17 against #11 WBC fringe contender Brandon Rios (34-3-1, 25 KOs) in a heavily criticized contest. The boxing fans don’t understand why Garcia would choose not to take fights against Spence or Shawn Porter in order to fight Rios, who has lost 3 out of his last 6 fights.
The referee working the Garcia vs. Matthysse fight Tony Weeks waited until the 12th round before he finally took a point away from Garcia for the low blows. But by that time, the damage was done. Garcia had controlled the rounds by hitting Matthysse low when he would try and pressure him. The other tactics Garcia used was pushing off. He was able to shove Matthysse frequently to keep him from attacking. It worked well for Garcia. Further, Garcia used his jab, clinching and movement to prevent Matthysse from getting to him. Even with all those tactics by Garcia, Matthysse still was getting the better of him in the later rounds. That’s one of the reasons why Garcia started moving a lot in the 11th and 12th, as he was getting hit a lot.
Matthysse might have problems beating the little known 25-year-old Kiram on January 27. Kiram is an unknown with zero wins over quality opponents, but he is young and he has a little bit of power. If Kiram has the talent to give Matthysse problems, he might beat him. The World Boxing Association has Kiram ranked #1 with their organization. It’s a crazy ranking given the poor opposition that Kiram has beaten to build his unbeaten 38-0 record. When you take away all the mediocre opponents Kiram has beaten to compile his record, you end up with a 0-0 record. Kiram might as well be a novice for the Matthysse fight, because the guys he’s beaten have been terrible.
“He’s unbeaten, he’s strong, we’ve watched some videos, he’s number one, so surely we have to respect Tewa Kiram,” said Matthysse. “These are fights that you cannot let go and you have to take advantage of them 100%. I have a physical trainer who always has me on the diet,” said Matthysse.
This will be Matthysse’s fight No.2 since making the move up to the welterweight division earlier this year in May. Matthysse defeated Emmanuel Taylor by a 5th round knockout on May 6. Taylor would have a good chance of beating Kiram if that fight were made. That tells you a little bit about sanctioning bodies. They sometimes rank poor fighters at the top based on their fluff records.
Matthysse vs. Kiram will be fighting on the same card as WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares’ defense against Marcito Gesta. That fight figures to be a mismatch with Linares making easy work of Gesta. Don’t be surprised if Matthysse-Kiram winds up being an even worse mismatch than the Linares-Gesta fight.