After Pacquiao loss, ex-WBA champ Matthysse calls time on career
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — Just two weeks after a punishing knockout loss to Filipino great Manny Pacquiao, Argentine former WBA welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse announced his retirement yesterday.
“Today I decided to hang up the gloves, another stage in my life is beginning,” said the 35-year-old Matthysse, who ends his 43-fight career with a record of 38 wins, 36 inside the distance, for just five defeats and one no contest.
Matthysse’s last fight was a seventh-round stoppage loss to Pacquiao in Kuala Lumpur, in which the previously explosive Argentine looked past his best.
“Pacquiao is a great boxer, I lost to a legend,” he said.
“I’m proud to have stayed at the top for 10 years fighting the best in the world.”
He won the WBA welterweight title in January with an eighth-round knockout of Thailand’s Tewa Kiram.
He previously held the interim WBC super-lightweight title but was narrowly beaten by American Danny Garcia in Las Vegas in 2013 when challenging for the full strap.