In Man Vs. Machine, “Ice” Man Superior; Postol Stops Matthysse in Rd. 10

Lucas Matthysse, the smasher from Argentina, met slick boxer Viktor Postol on Saturday night, at Stub Hub Center in Cali on Saturday night, and guess what? The slick boxer got pop; Postol weathered some leather and then gained steam, boxed smartly, moved, popped the jab and then he stepped it up. The end came late in the tenth, on a tiring favorite. A straight right put Matthysse down, on a knee. He looked down, and didn’t move muscles to get erect.

End of game for Matthysse, who never got untracked all that much, and couldn’t get a bead of a slippery and energized foe. We now wonder, is he burnt out. Mileage balding the tire? Warring sapped his body and soul?

Matt is 33, 139.5, to age 31 and 139.5 for the Ukrainian. The vacant WBC 130 pound crown was up for grabs.

In the first, the 37-3 Matt was the semi stalker, and Postol liked to keep a distance. There were a few clinches, and ref Jack Reiss told them to keep it clean. In the second, the 27-0 Ukrainian worked a triple jab. He slid, quickly, to his left, to steer away from the power edge. Postol moved smartly, popped little shots, kept at a smart distance. In the third, Matt and Postol clinched too much. Stop, break, said the ref several times. “Not pretty, but effective,” said HBO’s Jim Lampley of Postol’s game-plan. Harold Lederman had it 29-28 for Postol..

In the fourth, Postol was in a happy rhythm. He ate a left hook late but he took the round. How could Matthysse switch things around? In the fifth, the clinch-y stuff continued. We saw Postol put together a jab-jab-hook and then he’d slide. Very effective work…

Matt landed a hard right and the crowd buzzed, at :45. The straight right caught him backing up straight. Then Postol got his second holding warning… In the sixth, a right buzzed Postol. Then, a butt, a break, and Matt back to work. Matt was landing clean, both hands. A left hook was concussive from Matty. He got tagged late and buzzed a bit, solid stuff in that seventh. To the eighth…a one-two from Postol scored mightily. In the ninth: Postol backed up Matty, to the ropes, was looking ultra confident, totally fresh. The Matty corner told him after, You gotta throw, dude. Freddie Roach told Postol he needed the last two rounds big. In the tenth, down went Matty, soon after Freddie told Max Kellerman his guy could win by KO. He stayed down, didn’t beat the count, in fact, didn’t much try to..

Here are some quotes from after:

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