LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Lucas Matthysse does not work on the clock. The Argentinian slugger needed less than three minutes to dispose of Mike Dallas Jr., landing a crushing counter right for a face-down knockout earlier tonight at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
Dallas showed his speed and worked a sharp jab while Matthysse remained patient in looking to counter. Before the KO, Matthysse landed several solid shots to the body and a few left hands that got Dallas’s attention.
The deciding right hand put out Dallas before he hit the canvas and the referee wisely called off the bout.
Lucas Matthysse is now the #1 contender for Danny Garcia’s WBC title, which will be defended in two weeks against Zab Judah.
On the undercard, Jesus Soto Karass got a career revitalizing decision victory over Selcuk Aydin, and Jermell Charlo made easy work of Harry Joe Yorgey via an eighth round TKO. Aydin, struggling with Karass’s size, jab and left hook to body, tried to outbox his opponent off the backfoot and potshot. The stragegy failed as Karass remained the aggressor and outlanded Aydin in the majority of the rounds, taking the decision by scores of 95-95, and 97-93 twice. Charlo dominated Yorgey from the start in scoring 2 knockdowns and repeatedly nailing Yorgey with jabs and straight rights. The latter punch resulted in the last knockdown and the stoppage.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPNR4KODPck&feature=youtube_gdata_player]
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Matthysse the Beast: Lucas is coming for that WBC belt, whether it’s Zab or Danny holding it. I’m not confident that whoever wins will be in a hurry to fight him. At least after this fight, maybe Garcia will chill on his comments of Matthysse being a nobody.
Aydin Falls Flat: This was Aydin’s fight to shine. Jesus Soto Karass had been on a bit of a slide lately puncuated by his KO loss to Marcos Maidana last September. He’s slow and the consensus was he’d be there for Aydin to hit. Instead, Karass proved to be too strong inside for Aydin, who opted to stay on the move for the entire fight to stay away from those left hooks to the body. Aydin looked absolutely devastated afterward, but this is completely on him. Trying to box is not his game and it was Soto Karass who showed the urgency in the last round. And the judge who had it 95-95 was way off.
Charlo Is the Real Deal: I hadn’t seen Harry Joe Yorgey since Alfredo Angulo bombed him out a few years back. He slowly worked his way back to TV but ran into a much more talented fighter in 22 year old Jermell Charlo. Charlo’s right hands were locked on to Yorgey’s head the entire fight. Yorgey made a go of it but it was obvious early on it was a lost cause. The only criticism I saw was Charlo got a little too complacent and didn’t go for the kill a few rounds earlier when it was clear Yorgey had nothing for him. Other than that, I looked forwar to seeing him progress.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 