Matthysse overcomes sluggish start to win by KO
In the main event from The Forum in Inglewood, CA on HBO Boxing After Dark Lucas Matthysse knocked out Tewa Kiram in the eighth round to become the WBA regular welterweight champion.
The fight started slow with Kiram using his movement and throwing his jab often. In the second round it was more of the same with Matthysse struggling to find his range. By the third it was a starting to become a somewhat lackluster bout as Matthysse seemed to struggle with Kiram’s movement and didn’t seem sharp at all.
The fourth round was a continuation of previous rounds with a lot of jabbing and movement from Kiram, who up to this moment still hadn’t thrown many power shots. In between the the fifth and sixth rounds the commission removed a cap, that appeared to contain some type of foreign substance that Kiram was sniffing, from his corner.
By the seventh Kiram was warned for holding and the crowd was booing as it was a very dull fight up to that point with Kiram not showing much willingness to engage while Matthysse was missing wildly with the majority of his shots. However, in round eight Matthysse was able to catch Kiram with a left right combination that dropped him. Kiram was able to continue but was subsequently dropped by a left and could not continue as the referee called a halt to the bout.
It was a lackluster performance by Matthysse who improved his record to 39-4 with 36KOs while Kiram suffered his first defeat in 39 fights. After the fight Matthysse called out Danny Garcia and Manny Pacquiao.
By: Wilson Urena
