Photo by Ed Mulholland/HBO
There is never any dearth of surprise or controversy at the StubHub Center, and, on October 3, 2015, Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) contributed another chapter to the venue’s story with a dominant 10th-round knockout win against Lucas Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs) to win the vacant WBC Super Lightweight title.
The scheduled 12-round fight headlined an HBO Boxing After Dark telecast.
Postol, whom many considered to be an underdog in the fight, fought as an underdog in the opening rounds—Postol was careful, clinched several times and used a lot of lateral movement.
However, it was just the first phase of a game plan that involved both allowing Matthysse wear himself out in the early rounds and allowing Postol himself to capitalize in the later rounds.
Matthysse, of Chubut, Argentina, had lots of moments in the opening rounds as he landed powerful hooks and overhand rights.
Photo by Ed Mulholland/HBO
In Round 6, Matthysse landed a powerful right hand that buckled Postol. In the following round, smelling blood, the 33-year-old Matthysse pushed forward to land more shots.
However, somewhere between Rounds 7 and 8, Pistol seemed to figure something out; conversely, it also may have been Matthysse who had worn himself out.
In retrospect, Matthysse said that he grew frustrated and that his head was not in the fight. His inability to cut the ring in in Round 8 and 9 demonstrate how frustrated he was.
“He frustrated me. He got to my head and he frustrated me,” said Matthysse.
By Rounds 8 and 9, Postol landed his jabs with more consistency, and began landing combination punches. Matthysse was wearing down, and it was a fact Postol’s trainer could see.
“Before the last round, I told the corner he was dead tired and ready to go out. And, I told that to Postol,” said Freddie Roach.
Indeed, in Round 10, Postol landed a powerful right hand in Matthysse’s left eye that immediately floored him.
Matthysse later said that he wasn’t hurt from the punch, but felt that he had severely injured his eye.
“I felt there was damage to my eye, but I didn’t feel my body. The pain was instant and I knew I had to stop because I wasn’t sure what my eye looked like,” said Matthysse.
Photo by Ed Mulholland/HBO
Matthysse said that he is not considering retirement, but will spend time with his family before making future decisions.
Postol, after praising the efforts of Freddie Roach and his other trainers, said that he was willing to fight fellow world titlist Terence Crawford.
“I’m ready to fight him. The question is, is he ready to fight me?” said Postol, a 31-year-old native of Ukraine.
The fight will take some time to be built, so it doesn’t seem as if it is in the immediate horizon.
Nevertheless, as both are promoted by Top Rank, it is both a possible and very interesting fight to make.
Header photo by Ismael Gallardo/RBRBoxing
