Lucas Matthysse didn?t look as much like the ?old? Lucas Matthysse, in his second 147 fight, as he did a sort of ?old? Machine. But his power presented itself in round eight against Thai Tewa Kiram, and forced a stoppage to end a bout that had fans in attendance at the LA Forum hooting, hoping for a swifter pace on Saturday evening.
A one two sent Kiram to the mat. He beat the count, rose, fought on, and then a jab downed him, off a delayed reaction. He lay on his back for a long spell and it was puzzling, being that none of the blows which ended the event looked that hard. The HBO announce crew pondered if he?d been looking for a place to lay down and, indeed, Matthysse, signed to Golden Boy Promotions, told Max Kellerman after that he thought Kiram wanted to quit.
Matthysse, a proud Argentine, told Kellerman he found it hard to find Kiram but then his power spoke. Next? Danny Garcia or maybe Manny Pacquiao, said the new holder of the WBA JV 147 belt.
In the TV opener, Jorge Linares took on Mercito Gesta, from the Philippines. Linares? skill set stood out, not in a wow-y way, not in a fashion that will make fans clamor for him to fight a unity tango against a Mikey Garcia or a Vasyl Lomachenko. Linares got the UD12, and Gesta, trained by Freddie Roach, never threatened him, or buzzed him.
Freddie told him he needed to basically KO his foe to get the W, before the 12th, but Gesta didn?t to my eyes press on the gas and gun that engine to vie viciously for the belt.
