By Rick Reeno

StubHub Center, Carson, California - Junior welterweight Lucas Matthysse (35-3, 33KOs) returned for the first time since last September's decision loss to Danny Garcia and survived two knockdowns to score three of his own for an eleventh round knockout of John Molina (27-4, 22KOs).

The fireworks started late in round one after Molina shook Matthysse up with a big right and they started trading hard punches. In the second, Molina shocked the crowd by landing a short hook on the inside to put Matthysse down. A clash of heads opened up a cut above the left eye of Matthysse in the third. They went back to trading bombs in the fourth with each man having his moments.

Matthysse was controlling the fifth when Molina scored another knockdown with a shot that appeared to land to the back of the head. They were trading hard leather in the sixth with Matthysse's legs nearly crumbling at the end from a hard shot to the jaw. The leather continued to fly in the seventh and then Matthysse came out bombing in the eight to badly hurt and drop Molina at the end of the round.

Matthysse controlled the action for most of the ninth with vicious shots to the head and body. Matthysse unloaded the kitchen in the tenth to drop Molina for a secod time and nearly finshed him off. Matthysse went right back to work in the eleventh, unloading early to send Molina down and out.