Viktor Postol- Lucas Matthysse: Post-Fight Report Card

By Cliff Rold

Outside Super Middleweight when Andre Ward is fighting there, the nations that make up the former Soviet Union are the dominant force in boxing above 154 lbs. right now. That dominion is moving down the scale.

With Danny Garcia out of the division, many saw Lucas Matthysse as the man to beat at Jr. Welterweight. Ukrainian Viktor Postol did that and more on Saturday night, putting Matthysse on the deck and essentially making him quit.

Matthysse looked like he could have got up. He made no attempt to do so. In what was a close fight for the first half, Postol went to work in the eighth and took over completely. Having taken some good shots from Matthysse, the patient, lanky Ukrainian may be around for some time to come.  

Let’s go to the report card.

Grades

Pre-Fight: Speed – Matthysse B+; Postol B-/Post: B+; B+

Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Matthysse A; Postol B+/Post: B-; A

Correcting an error, the pre-fight should have read B for speed and B- for power for Postol. It was wrong as printed and would have been wrong anyways. Postol’s knockout percentage is clearly misleading as he hurt and dropped a fighter who took bombs from Ruslan Provodnikov just months ago.

It wasn’t always pretty. This was often a foul fight. Postol used a lot of holding and leaning and Matthysse responded with rabbit punches. Like a Wladimir Klitschko or Bernard Hopkins, there is a method to what Postol was doing. All that leaning is tiring and slows down aggressive fighters. It creates room over the course of a fight for the range the long limbed Postol is best at.

For the first seven rounds, there were reasons to like either fighter in most stanzas. That changed in the eighth. Postol, moving and landing with deft accuracy, started to box Matthysse silly. The closing shot was all about the work he’d put in to set it up, catching Matthysse coming in and making it count. The WBC belt is the spoils he walks away with.

For Matthysse, it’s back to the drawing board and his chances to win a major title may have evaporated. At 32, he’s not getting younger and his hard fight meter is growing. The mental comeback from wondering if he should have tried to rise could wear on him. After building a reputation as a guy so many avoid, his ceiling is pretty well established. Garcia, and now Postol, have shown he can be outboxed, contained, and even beaten up.

Postol now has the world at his fingertips. With his size, an eventual move to Welterweight isn’t hard to imagine. In the meantime, he earned the right to lead the race at Jr. Welterweight for the time being. On the HBO side of the bracket, it would seem a natural to see Postol face off with Terrence Crawford by next year. That is, after Saturday, a pick ‘em fight and one with all of the intrigue boxing fans could ask for.

Let’s hope we see it.

Report Card and Staff Picks 2015: 78-21

Cliff’s Notes…

Adrien Broner won and he was supposed to against a guy with little punch and a long layoff. Considering that he won’t likely be lined up with a Postol or Terrence Crawford on his side of the boxing divide, he can probably hold a belt at 140 for a while. Saying he could have beat Shawn Porter would be a lot more interesting if he was screaming to avenge his loss. Remember when that used to happen? Who calls out Ashley Theophane? This isn’t the poor man’s Mayweather. It’s the poor man’s post-Rosario Hector Camacho…Jose Pedraza is lucky to still have a belt.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com