Danny Garcia vs. Lucas Matthysse results: Danny Garcia edges Matthysse to retain super lightweight title
By Josh Sanchez
Danny Garcia and Lucas Matthyssee entered the co-feature on tonight’s big boxing pay-per view on Showtime as they faced off for the unified super lightweight championship.
This had all of the makings of potential fight of the night thanks to Garcia’s energy and Matthysee’s knockout power, so there was plenty of interest in the bout that served to get us ready for Mayweather vs. Canelo.
Garcia started off the fight working to the body and trying to find his range, while Matthysse sat back and was loading up on the power shots to put an end to the bout early. Matthysse was coming out with the heavy shots and Garcia was staying behind his jab, so it was an interesting style contrast throughout the first round.
Matthysse was opening up with some strong hooks, including one that caused Garcia to be shaky, as the Argentinian continued to pick up the pace.
Garcia landed a low blow near the end of the second-round, but Matthysse was not slowed down and he looked to be up two rounds as he set the tempo for the beginning of the fight.
It appeared that Garcia was still trying to feel out Matthysse in Round 3, but Matthysse’s power and pace was beginning to make the difference. With the body punches that Matthysse was landing, welts began to form on Garcia’s ribs.
Garcia’s corner urged Danny to pick up the pace and “wake the f— up” after a lackluster performance to start the fight and he answered the call in the fourth-round.
Matthysse appeared to give up on his jab and rely solely on the big power shots, which played in to Garcia’s gameplan and allowed him to be far more active. For the first time in the fight, Garcia woke up and the crowd was getting close to being on their feet with the back and forth action.
The two men clashed heads to start off the fifth round, but that didn’t slow down Garcia, who was building off of the momentum that he built in the previous frame.
Matthysse finally began to use his gab again at the midway point of the round, which was opening up Garcia to take more damage. The only bizarre part of his gameplan was the fact that he was throwing the wild, looping blows instead of his more calculated shots.
At the midway point of the fight, Matthysse finally began to tighten up his punches and throw the power down the middle. Changing up the delivery seemed to be taking it’s toll on Garcia, but the champion was showing no signs of slowing down.
Matthysse did seem to have control of the fight entering the final stretch, but there was plenty of action left to go.
Garcia was landing some counter shots as Matthysse missed his power shots and that resulted in a swollen right eye that looked like it could become a big problem.Garcia landed a beautiful combination to end the round as doctors immediately came in the ring to check on the Argentinian’s eye.
Here was an image of the injured eye:
Matthysse said that he could still see, so the fight continued.
Garcia landed some huge left hooks to start the eighth round as he looked to take advantage of the swollen eye and the champion appeared to be on his way to taking back the lead in the fight.
With three rounds to go, Matthysse was trying to hold on in the fight, but Garcia was fresh and able to pick apart the challenger as he continued to pepper away at Matthysse with some heavy shots. Garcia was able to put together a nice series o f rounds, however, it was hard to ignore that Matthysse’s depth perception is off as he continues to come up short on his right hands.
The championship rounds kicked off with a huge right hand by Matthysse that sent Garcia’s mouthpiece flying and the pace immediately picked up to a furious pace.
Garcia caught Matthysse with a beautiful combination to drop the Argentinian for the first time in his career. He was able to get back to his feet and referee Tony Weeks restarted the action. Matthysse was going to need a big final round if he was going to steal away the belt.
Matthysse looked like a man on a mission throwing the wild power shots, but Garcia’s chin was holding up and he continued to press forward with some stunning combinations. Matthysse did get some extra pep in his step for the final minute of the fight, but he was unable to land any significant blows during the final stretch. Unfortunately for Garcia, a low blow with just 37 seconds to go caused Weeks to deduct a point from the champion.
We would have to see how the point deduction would affect the final score of the fight and when the final scorecards were read, the judges scored the fight 115-111, 114-112 and 114-112 in favor of the champion Danny Garcia.