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Matthysse to rest eye, wants rematch with Garcia

Fighters Network
18
Sep

An advisor of No. 1-rated junior welterweight Lucas Matthysse said the fighter has been advised by doctors to refrain from sparring for 45-to-60 days as a result of an eye injury suffered during Saturday’s unanimous decision loss to RING, WBA and WBC junior welterweight champion Danny Garcia, who dropped him in the 11th-round at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

According to statements conveyed by Golden Boy’s Ramiro Gonzalez, manager Mario Arano said that Matthysse (34-3, 32 knockouts) is resting in Junin, Argentina, with his daughter following the loss to Garcia (27-0, 16 KOs), whose victory ended a six-bout KO streak by Matthysse. 

Referee Tony Weeks contended, as did Garcia, during the post-fight press conference, that the ugly welt which surfaced beneath Matthysse’s right eye in the seventh round, was the result of a punch.

“In 45-to-60 days, Lucas will be ready to start training. Right now his eye is being treated by his personal doctor,” said Arano, according to Gonzalez. “He will return to Los Angeles in 20-to-25 days to meet with Golden Boy [CEO Richard Schaefer] and [matchmaker] Eric Gomez to see what’s next.”



Matthysse and Arano were unhappy with what they  feels was in appropriate officiating by Weeks, who issued perhaps three or four warnings for low blows over the course of the fight before finally penalizing Garcia for a shot that landed directly on Matthysse’s cup in the 12th round.

“The referee was very wrong,” said Arano, according to Gonzalez. “He was a disaster for not penalizing Garcia for the low blows since the first round.”

“I kept warning Danny to keep the punches up. A couple of times, Matthysse would grab his head, so I don’t believe that he was doing them deliberately,” Weeks told RingTV.com. “But the punches were straying low, and that last one in that last round, Matthysse didn’t have his head or anything. That was just a straight out low blow.”

Arano also questioned the knockdown, arguing that Matthysse was trapped in the ropes when Garcia dropped him with a left-right-left combination, with all three blows landing to the head.

“Lucas was trapped by the ropes and defenseless. The knockdown was very wrong, because Lucas was out of the ropes,” said Arano. “Tony Weeks should have stopped the action, and then, continued it because Matthysse’s

head and arms were outside of the ring.”

Matthysse wants a rematch, although none is contractually mandated. Garcia, however, has said that Matthysse  represented his last fight at 140 pounds, where he has scored fourth-round knockouts over Erik Morales and Amir Khan, split-decisions over Ashley Theophane and Kendall Holt, and unanimous decisions over Morales, Nate Campbell and Zab Judah.

“I beat the best fighters at 140. What else do you want me to do?” said Garcia. “I beat everybody at 140. I beat two guys that I wasn’t supposed to beat, and I beat them, in fashion.”

 

 

Photo by Naoki Fukuda

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]