Filipino Manny Pacquiao regained the World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight belt by knocking out defending champion Lucas Matthysse of Argentina in Kuala Lumpur.
It is his first victory by knockout since 2009 and it marks a new stage for this iconic boxer who will turn 40 in December. With this triumph, he has already added 60 victories in his career.
The Filipino dropped his rival in the third round with a devastating series of blows, and when he fell for the third time, in the seventh, referee Kenny Bayless ended the fight.
– ‘I’m not young anymore’ –
Lucas Matthysse, 35, known as ‘the Machine’, entered the fight with a good reputation, but could not cope with the speed of his rival.
“I’m surprised I knocked him down so fast,” said Pacquiao, who now has 60 wins, seven losses and two draws.
“I was surprised to knock Matthysse down in the third, fifth and seventh rounds. It had been a long time since I had achieved something like that. Today was full, “he added, recognizing that he is no longer” so young. “
The Argentine, who entered the fight with a record 36 knockouts in 39 wins and four losses, was overwhelmed by the good form of ‘Manny’ Pacquiao.
An icon in his country, of which he is a senator-elect, Pacquiao had said before the fight that the result of the fight would be the basis for making a decision on his possible retirement. His outstanding performance suggests that he will continue fighting beyond the age of 40, which he turns in December.
“We did a good job in training, we have not pushed too hard, we have controlled the pace,” analyzed Pacquiao, the only boxer in history to have won the world title in eight different weight classes, in a 23-year career.
Do I look 39 years old? I think I’m fine, if you see me in training you would say I’m 27 or 28, “he added.
“Manny Pacquiao is very difficult to fight,” Matthysse said after the fight. “He is a great boxer, I lost to a great legend,” he said.
The Argentine had snagged the WBA welterweight world champion belt in January after defeating Teerachai Sithmorseng of Thailand.
– Cañizales cara, Ortega cruz –
However, the last time he faced an opponent of the caliber of Pacquiao, he fell by knockout in the 10th round, to Ukraine’s Viktor Postol, the super lightweight world champion, in 2015.
On the same evening in Malaysia, and before the Pacquiao-Matthysse clash, Filipino Jhack Tepora achieved the interim World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight belt by beating Mexican Edivaldo Ortega.
Undefeated Tepora dropped Ortega with a right hand in the ninth round, in a bout that had been close up to that point.
He then followed with a series of powerful swings that forced the referee to stop the fight after 2 minutes and 38 seconds in the ninth round.
“I didn’t expect to win but I trained very hard for this fight in the last three months,” said Tepora, who now has a record of 22 wins.
In another of the bouts held in Kuala Lumpur, Chinese Lu Bin’s attempt to win the world title of the light fly in his second professional fight was brutally thwarted by Venezuelan Carlos Cañizales, who knocked him out in the final seconds of the contest.
Cañizales, who was putting his belt on the line, dropped Lu in the eleventh round and went for the knockout in the twelfth and final round, achieving it just before the end.
The 23-year-old Chinese left the ring on a stretcher and wearing an oxygen mask. AFP