Manny Pacquiao Is Back and Stops Lucas Matthysse in the 7th Round!
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By Rich “Lite It Up” Lopez
There was a lot of questions going to last night’s fight between Manny Pacquiao 50-7-2, 38 KO’s Vs Lucas Matthysse 39-4, 36 KO’s. Most of the questions were going towards Pac-Man. How well would he perform after a year layoff? Was Manny’s heart still in the game? How would he do against a dangerous puncher like Matthysse? The bottom line: Will Manny’s age finally show up? Well Manny Pacquiao answered all those questions.
The fight was held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and aired on ESPN+ in the U.S. The fight was for the WBA World Welterweight title held by Lucas Matthysse. The 39 year old Manny Pacquiao showed no ring rust and showed his heart was still in boxing. Pacquiao took command of the fight right away and we saw signs of the old Pacquiao we were used to seeing.
He was darting in and out using his footwork landing power shots. Even though he has lost some speed over the years, he was still the quicker fighter in there. Matthysse was gamed but too slow. Matthysse made it easier for Pacquiao as he stood right in front of him with no head movement. Pacquiao dropped Matthysse in the 3rd round with a nice sneaky left uppercut. Matthysse did get up but Pacquiao continued his onslaught as the rounds went on. In round 5, Matthysse took a knee which seemed to be from a grazing right hook from Manny. Matthysse once again got up and continued on. As the fight went, Pacquiao kept dominating the fight. Towards the end of round seven, Manny landed another left uppercut that dropped Matthysse again. Matthysse wanted no more and the ref stopped the fight. Matthysse could never get off with his punches or land his big right hand. The stoppage was 2:43 of round 7.
Manny Pacquiao once again showed why he is a true legend in the sport. At the age of 39, the man still has it after 23 years in the sport. He has now cemented his 60th career win and has acquired the WBA belt. It is true that most observers felt that Manny would win, but he finally scored a stoppage victory which he has not done since 2009. Sure Matthysse is no Errol Spence or a Terence Crawford, but he was a threat for the aging Pacquiao at this stage of his career. Now moving forward, it will be interesting to see where Manny goes from here and who he fights next. Either way, Pacquiao is not done yet and we should enjoy this as long as we can.
The co-feature of the night was for the Interim WBA Featherweight title between Philippines Jhack Tepora 21-0, 16 KO’s Vs Mexico’s Edivaldo Ortega 26-1-1, 12 KO’s. At the start of the fight, Tepora came out firing and hurt Ortega to the body. As Tepora got a little confident, he got caught with a right hand from Ortega. After a good start from Tepora, he seemed to leave Ortega off the hook and Ortega was doing well himself from rounds 2-5, with constant pressure. He was landing left hands set up by his jabs. Tepora then got back into it in round six and went back to the body which seemed to hurt Ortega again. Rounds 7-8 were slow rounds with both fighters not doing too much. As round 9 started, Tepora picked up the pace again and this time caught Ortega with a right uppercut that dropped him. Ortega got up on wobbly legs and Tepora finished Ortega with a barrage of punches which prompted the ref to stop the fight. The stoppage was 2:38 of round 9. We look forward to seeing Tepora in the future and see what he brings to the stacked Featherweight division.
In the opening bout of the ESPN+ card, WBA World Light Flyweight Champion Carlos Canizales 20-1-1, 16 KO’s of Venezuela faced off with China’s Bin Lu 1-0, 1 KO. Canizales captured the belt earlier this year by beating Reiya Konishi in Japan. Bin Lu was an outstanding amateur and was looking to break a record in boxing. He was looking to win a world title in only his 2nd professional fight. The record is currently held by Saensak Muangsurin and Vasyl Lomachenko as they won world titles in their 3rd professional fights. At the start of the fight, Lu came out real strong and both men exchanged well in the early rounds. However going to the mid rounds, you can start to see the far more experienced Canizales taking over the fight. He was applying good pressure and going to the body of Lu. Lu was always gamed and fought back in spots here and there. Canizales kept his composure and kept going to the body though. As Lu made it to the late rounds, he was getting weaker and Canizales kept with the pressure.
In the 11th round, Canizales landed a good left hook followed by a right hand that dropped Lu and Lu held on to the ropes. The ref called it a knockdown. In the 12th round, Canizales hurt Lu with a right hand and Canizales landed another right hand to drop Lu. Lu got up but was unable to continue. The stoppage was at 2:59 in the 12th round. Canizales made his successful 1st defense of the title. Lu put a good effort considering it was his only 2nd pro fight but he did not have enough experience.
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