By Jake Donovan
The last time Lucas Matthysse and Rogelio Castaneda Jr faced one another, the bout was abruptly cut short by a headbutt less than three rounds into the evening, denying either fighter a definitive ending for their efforts.
Their rematch on Friday night ended even quicker. Only this time, the event provided closure.
Matthysse scored three knockdowns before forcing the stoppage at 2:34 of the opening round of their Telefutura-televised main event at Club Atletico Newell's Old Boys in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina.
It appeared at bouts start as if the two were in for a long night, the typical night’s work normally provided by the oft-durable Castaneda. Neither fighter resembled a ball of fire in the first minute or saw, pawing at one another and not taking many chances.
Matthysse changed that in a hurry, connecting with power shots upstairs before a left hook sent Castaneda to the canvas for the first time of the evening, just over a minute into the fight.
Castaneda beat the count, but was forced to play the role of punching bag for the rest of the evening while contending with a cut just outside of his right eye. If there was any good news for the Mexican journeyman, it’s that the evening wouldn’t last very long.
Right hands galore landed flush for Matthysse, with that very punch producing two more knockdowns, both times following a flurry of head shots. The third knockdown of the night saw Castaneda drilled into the ropes and eventually the canvas, bouncing back up almost instantaneously and reactionary.
However, the referee recognized the bout for the mismatch that it had quickly become, and waved it off without issuing a third mandatory eight count.
Matthysse improves to 27-0-1NC (25KO) with the win, his fifth straight since the two fighters fought to a controversial contest nearly two years ago in Grand Prairie, Texas.
That fight, which marked just the second time Matthysse fought outside of his native Argentina, ended less than a minute into the third round when it was declared that a headbutt produced a cut bad enough to stop their bout. Replays never confirmed the call to be correct, denying Matthysse what would’ve been his 20th straight knockout.
He gets the knockout in this contest, this time without any special assistance from the third man, which was not the case the last time he entered the right. Matthysse was on the favorable end of a premature stoppage against former junior welterweight titlist Vivian Harris this past February, the Argentinean’s lone other fight this year.
The bout had swung in Matthysse’s favor, as Harris was in trouble in the round, but not to the point where he could no longer defend himself. The referee felt otherwise, jumping in and stopping the contest without the threat of even a knockdown on the horizon.
There was no controversy in this bout, just a little something for the trivia books. The fight marks the quickest exit for Castaneda since his pro debut, as he heads home with his sixth loss in his last ten fights (3-6-1NC in that span, covering four years). He falls overall to 26-16-3 (8KO) in perhaps his last appearance in a televised headliner, even in the opponent role.
Meanwhile, Matthysse continues to creep closer towards title contention. His older brother, former welterweight title challenger Walter Matthysse, reached that point but failed miserably once there, suffering knockout losses to Paul Williams and Kermit Cintron, before ending his career with three straight losses inside the distance.
Among that infamous streak was a 2007 stoppage at the hands of countryman Sebastian Lujan, who appeared on this show in the televised co-feature. A former title challenger himself, Lujan looked sharp in taking apart Emilio Julio, forcing the Colombian to quit on his stool after six relatively one-sided rounds.
Lujan was effective with his right hand nearly all night, often the final punch thrown in his flurries of head shots that had Julio on unsteady legs. Enough of them landed in a particularly punishing sixth round, leading Julio’s handlers to keep their fighter in the corner rather than come out for the seventh.
Despite no punches being thrown beyond the sixth round, it goes into the books as a seventh round stoppage due to the bell ringing to start the round.
Lujan improves to 34-5-2 (22KO) with the win, his seventh straight covering a three-year span. Having twice come up short in alphabet title bids, the 30-year old Argentinean is positioning himself for perhaps one more crack at a major belt.
Those dreams are long shattered for Julio, who falls to 18-6-1 (11KO) in losing for the third time in his last four contests.
The show was presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Arano Box Producciones.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.
