Viktor Postol recalls big night when he knocked out Lucas Matthysse in 10th

Victor Postol celebrates his knockout victory over Lucas Matthysse to win the vacant WBC super lightweight title Saturday at the StubHub Center. (Photo by Gene Blevins)

Viktor Postol wears his new championship belt after winning the junior welterweight title with a 10th-round knockout of Lucas Matthysse on Oct. 3 at StubHub Center/Photo by Gene Blevins

 

You can bet that when Viktor Postol took on Lucas Matthysse for a vacant junior welterweight title this past Oct. 3 at StubHub Center in Carson, more fans expected Matthysse to emerge victorious than Postol.

But it was Postol who stunned the crowd by knocking out Matthysse in the 10th round to win the championship.

Postol, who will take on Terence “Bud” Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) on July 23 in a title-unification bout at MGM Grand in Las Vegas (on HBO pay-per-view), on Monday recalled that special night.

“The fight with Matthysse was my most challenging and memorable because it was my first world championship fight and I was fighting for the title against one of the strongest punchers in the division,” Postol said from the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, where he is trained by Freddie Roach. “The importance of this fight for my career and my life was not lost on me.”

Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs) has a knockout ratio of 81 percent, so the thinking was if anyone was going to win by knockout, it would be him because Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) has a knockout ratio of just 43 percent.

Roach couldn’t say enough about his fighter’s work.

“It was a very good performance,” Roach said. “We were in charge of the fight the whole time. Viktor followed the game plan perfectly. I remember before the last round I told our corner that Matthysse was very tired and ready to go out. He was coming in with his head leaning down.”

 

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