Pacquiao Stops Matthysse

Pacquiao Stops Matthysse:

Despite being on the verge of hitting 40 Manny Pacquiao showed flashes of his old brilliance in beating Lucas Matthysse and getting his first stoppage victory since 2009.

The pro-Pacquiao crowd at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia went home happy as their hero stopped Matthysse in 7 largely one-sided rounds. Pacquiao either by design or decline was more flat-footed than the Pacquiao of old but he still had more than enough to dismantle Matthysse who was a major disappointment in losing his WBA regular welterweight title.

Despite the odd fleeting success Matthysse was thoroughly dominated by the Filipino legend and was dropped 3 times during the fight. A beautifully timed uppercut from Pacquiao dropped his opponent in the 3rd, Matthysse took a knee at the end of the 5th and the final knockdown in the 7th prompted the referee Kenny Bayless to call a halt to the fight.

Pacquiao at the post-fight press conference seemed pleased with his night’s work:

“I’m not gone I’m still here. Sometimes you just need to rest and get it back, and that’s what I did.”

I gave Pacquiao every round, Matthysse only looked like getting something going in the 5th and when he got dropped again towards the end of that round all his momentum and any reasonable chance of victory had gone.

Matthysse talks of fighting on, a decision he seriously needs to reconsider.

“Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Today was my turn to lose and I lost to a great fighter and a great legend in Manny Pacquiao. I’m going to take a rest, take a break. I worked really hard and I want to go back home to my family. This is part of boxing that you win some and lose some. Today was my turn to lose but nothing more.”

At 35 its difficult to see where Matthysse can go, his performance was one of those where a fighter just gets old in front of us. In a snake pit of a division if Matthysse carries on an even more painful defeat awaits him.

For Pacquiao, the win keeps the show on the road and in his first fight in 17 years without Freddie Roach he admittedly looked much better than he did last time out against Jeff Horn. But that said we should not be fooled into thinking that this is some reborn fighter who has turned back the clock. Yes, he looked better than he did against Horn last year but this version of Matthysse certainly helped the illusion of a clock being turned back.

Pacquiao retired Oscar De La Hoya and its inevitable that Pacquiao himself will suffer a similar fate, the likes of Keith Thurman, Terrence Crawford and especially Errol Spence Jr will prove far more formidable foes than Matthysse was in Kuala Lumpur. Amir Khan is a much more realistic future opponent or maybe the Horn rematch.

In 1975 Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier gave us one of the greatest fights in boxing history and both should have retired on the spot, neither did and both suffered in later life as a consequence. Personally speaking, this is another fight where I hope we don’t see either boxer fight again, neither will retire of course and both will ultimately leave the sport after a younger fighter’s fists convinces them its best to do so.