By Dan Ambrose:: Tewa Kiram (38-0, 28 KOs) says he has a great plan to use to defeat Lucas Matthysse (38-4, 35 KOs) for their fight next week on January 27 for the vacant WBA World welterweight title at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
(Photo Credit : Lina Baker/SeeYouRingside Photography)
Kiram, 25, notes that he has the size advantage over the 5’6 ½” Matthysse, who is moving up in weight from the light welterweight division to go after the vacant WBA 147 lb. title against #1 WBA Kiram.
Kiram and Matthysse are fighting on HBO Boxing After Dark as part of a doubleheader with WBA World lightweight, WBC Diamond and Ring Magazine champion Jorge Linares defending against Mercito Gesta on the same card.
Kiram is a real unknown from Thailand. While some boxing fans believe Kiram could be the welterweight division’s version of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, he doesn’t look like a real big puncher. Kiram has decent power and a good jab, but he’s slow and he doesn’t have the kind of power that Matthysse or any of the top welterweights have in the division. The two things that Kiram has going for him is size and his ability to move around the ring.
Kiram does move well, and he does a lot of turning to keep his opponents from having a stationary target to punches off. But Kiram’s jab is nothing special. He throws it slowly, and he can be countered. Kiram is wide open for left hooks. In his fight against Vladimir Baez in July 2016, Kiram was getting caught with that shot repeatedly. Kiram was lucky that Baez isn’t a big puncher otherwise that would have been problem for him.
“I have a great game plan that I have for next week,” said Kiram. I can’t reveal it now, but if I find an opportunity, I’ll take it. Lucas Matthysse is coming from 140 to 147, so I feel good about that. I’ll be the naturally bigger guy in there,” said Kiram.
Kiram’s game plan will almost surely involve him staying on the outside and using his jab and movement to keep Matthysse from being able to get close enough to land his big power shots. I don’t think for a second that Kiram is going to want to mix it up with Matthysse, because it’s too dangerous to do that. Kiram has likely watched Matthysse’s fight with Danny Garcia, and he’ll notice that he had problems with the jabs, low blows, pushing off and movement.
Garcia was mostly fighting defensively by staying on the outside. Garcia was able to hurt Matthysse with numerous low blows in the fight. The referee Tony Weeks let Garcia get away with the low blows for the first 11 rounds before he finally took off 1 point in the 12th. The damage was already by Garcia with him being able to throw low blows for the entire fight. Garcia should have had at least 3 points taken away for his low blows, but the referee Weeks was very lax in doing anything about it. In round 11, Garcia got away with shoving Matthyse into the ropes, causing him to get entangled. While Matthysse was helpless from being shoved into the ropes, Garcia teed off on him until he fell down. Matthysse wasn’t hurt. He had been entangled in the ropes from having been shoved by Garcia. Weeks counted it as a knockdown rather than disallowing it due to Garcia shoving Matthysse into the ropes. If you take away the knockdown and all the missed foul calls on Weeks’ part, Matthysse should have won that fight. It was a poorly officiated match by Weeks. If Kiram is going to follow the same game plan that Garcia used in beating Matthysse, it’s going to be a really dirty fight on January 27. Hopefully the referee does his job if we see too many low blows. It would be a tragedy if Kiram follows Danny Garcia’s blueprint and starts nailing Matthysse with low blows right off the bad in round 1.
I’m very relaxed, even though this is my first fight outside of Thailand. I’m very happy and excited to come to America to fight for a world title. With a win, I’ll come back here very soon and fight again!” said Kiram.
It would be a big plus for Kiram if he’s able to knockout Matthysse the way that fellow Thailand fighter WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai was able to stop Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez in the 4th round of their rematch last September. That was the second time that Rungvisai was able to stop Gonzalez. Rungvisai is a big puncher with huge power. Kiram isn’t that kind of puncher for the welterweight division. If he’s going to beat Matthysse, he’ll need to use some finesse to try and get the job done by moving, shoving and using his jab frequently. In other words, Kiram will have to box Matthysse to have a chance of beating him.
The difference in experience against very good is too vast. Kiram has been fighting stiffs his entire career. Recently, Kiram had a hard time being Kazakhstan fighter Alexandr Zhuravskiy (13-3, 11 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on January 21, 2016. Kiram beat Zhuravskiy by the scores 116-112, 117-111 and 117-112. The fight was fairly close. This wasn’t a good fighter, and yet Kiram struggled badly against him. That fight shows you the kind of talent that Kiram has. He’s not someone that can be counted on to win a decision over Matthysse. If he’s going to beat Matthysse, he’s going to have to knock him out.