With Lucas Matthysse?s knockout Saturday night, the Argentinean boxing surge seems to have abetted for now?
Reportedly, Freddie Roach had said during training that Viktor ?The Iceman? Postol was his ?new favorite fighter.? By the end of the eighth round in tonight?s shocker, it was abundantly clear why. Postol (now 28-0) is the latest sensation from Eastern Europe and he can flat-out box blending technical skills with power.
The first few rounds were feeling out types but Postol began finding a rhythm while La M?quina (37-4) kept stalking and looking for the game changer. He almost found it in the sixth with a straight right that hurt his taller opponent, but The Iceman weathered the storm and, using his length and reach, took over from that point on. Using great movement to avoid Lucas?s vicious left hook and long jabs that peppered Matthysse along with draining shots to the body, Postol looked like he was on cruise control for a unanimous decision win as he began hitting Matthysse almost at will, something no other opponent had ever come close to doing.
Then, in the 10th round, Postol connected with a perfect right that caught a lunging Lucas squarely on the left eye and put him down. While it appeared the Argentinean would get up he chose to stay down, indicating that something had snapped in his eye and chose not to risk further injury. One look at his battered and bloodied face seemed to affirm that decision. Still, the right that ended the fight came out of the blue and was a stunner.
Those who witnessed The Iceman?s dramatic knockout of rugged Turk Selcuk Aydin in May 2014 knew he was not to be taken lightly and would be a very live underdog. Even the HBO team?to their credit?warned that this would be no ?gimme? for La M?quina. Maybe the Provodnikov fight in April took something out of Lucas or maybe he and his team were overconfident but whatever the case, the Argentinean boxing surge seems to have abetted for now.
Sergio Martinez is gone. Marcos Maidana is enjoying the fruits of his labor back home, and Luis Carlos Abregu was stopped by Sadam Ali last year. Now the seemingly indestructible aura of Lucas Matthysse has been shattered.
Another Argentinean, Cesar Rene Cuenca (48-0), is scheduled to fight Russian Eduard Troyanovsky (22-0) on November 4, 2015, with the IBF and IBO World super lightweight titles at stake. Should Cuenca win, some of the luster will be restored.
Meanwhile, Viktor Postol has stamped his name on the boxing landscape as someone to watch and enjoy in future fights.
Ted Sares is one of the world?s oldest active power lifters and holds several world and state records. He enjoys writing about boxing. Follow us on Twitter@boxing_com to continue the discussion
