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Lucas Matthysse's hype train is the real deal. The Argentinean slugger thrashed Lamont Peterson in just three rounds tonight, likely setting up a fight with Danny Garcia for September.
Peterson (31-2-1, 16 KO) had a solid first round, boxing from the outside, but he didn't look entirely comfortable in that role. In the second round, Matthysse (34-2, 32 KO) threw caution to the wind a bit more, and Peterson fell into the trenches, where he proved outgunned.
Matthysse put Peterson down on a left hook high on the head, with Peterson responding in a delayed manner, falling to the mat, after a little stumble, with referee Steve Smoger making the correct call. In the third, Peterson was down twice more on bomb shots -- it was Matthysse's left hook that did the big damage tonight, and Peterson just couldn't stand up to the power.
Lamont made no excuses after the fight, either, other than briefly saying he felt he'd been hit behind the head at one point, which dizzied him.
"I recovered from the first knockdown, and I was OK for a while, then eventually he hit me again and hurt me again -- I still thought I could have fought through it, but the ref did the right thing and stopped the fight," Peterson said to Showtime's Jim Gray.
When Gray asked if Matthysse was the better man, Peterson replied, "Tonight, I guess he was."
Matthysse, who was called by Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer "the new Manny Pacquiao" after the fight, was simply sensational in this one. Beating a guy like Peterson is a feat in itself. Tearing him up in three rounds is something else entirely.
Right now, Lucas Matthysse is a true force. Can Danny Garcia handle him? Hopefully, we'll find out.