By Radio Rahim

The third time was the charm for Lucas Matthysse (39-4, 36 KOs), who stopped previously undefeated Thai superstar Tewa Kiram (37-1, 27 KOs) in the eighth round of a scheduled 12-round fight to win the vacant WBA "regular" welterweight championship on HBO Boxing After Dark.

Before a crowd of 6,143 boxing fans at Los Angeles' "Fabulous" Forum, Matthysse scored two knockdowns in the eight round before the referee waved off the fight.

At the time of the stoppage, two judges had Matthysse winning with scores of 68-65 and 69-64, while one judge had it 68-65 for Kiram.

There are several defeats on Matthysse's career, but the one that bothers him most came at the hands of former two division champion Danny Garcia - when the Argentine puncher challenged Garcia for his junior welterweight titles.

The fight took place in September 2013 in Las Vegas, as the co-feature to Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez, and saw Garcia win a twelve round unanimous decision. He dropped Matthysse in the fight and also had his eye closed shut by the end of the fight.

Not too long after, Garcia started making plans to make a move the welterweight division. Matthysse made his debut at 147 in May of 2017.

"Beating Kiram puts me once again at the top of welterweight division," Matthysse said.

"[The fight I really want] would be with Danny Garcia. Obviously I wanted the rematch before, it didn't occur, but with this world title I'll be in a better position to get that rematch.

"The first fight was great and I know that the rematch would once again be a great fight, and that's the fight that people want to see."

Garcia will return next month, in a WBC final eliminator with Brandon Rios at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The contest will be the first for Garcia since suffering his first career defeat in March 2017, when he lost a twelve round split decision to Keith Thurman in their WBC, WBA welterweight unification clash.