Lucas Matthysse wins first boxing world title despite sluggish performance

Who’d have known that Lucas Matthysse, after winning his first boxing world title, would have to wonder about such strange queries.

Where were your power punches?

What did you learn about the performance-enhancing effects of the pain-relief rub known as Tiger Balm?

Do you deserve Manny Pacquiao in his discussed April 14 comeback fight?

The 35-year-old Argentinian, who had twice failed in bids to become a junior-welterweight world champion, took consolation late Saturday night in claiming the World Boxing Assn.’s vacant secondary welterweight belt by knocking out Thailand’s No. 2-rated contender, Tewa Kiram, in the eighth round at the Forum.

The bout followed Jorge Linares’ seventh consecutive lightweight title victory, a unanimous decision (118-110, 118-110, 117-111) over Mercito Gesta.

Matthysse won despite a puzzling departure from his famed reliance on heavy handed blows. Punch statistician CompuBox recorded him landing only 39 power punches on Kiram (37-1).

“He moved really well and he was really big. That’s why it was hard to cut the distance,” Matthysse (38-4, 36 knockouts) said.

The reduced effort also looked much like the effects of age, as Matthysse landed only 24% of his total punches (59 of 246 thrown) and trailed 68-65 on judge Pat Russell’s card through seven rounds.

Kiram trailed 68-65 on Zach Young’s card and 69-64 on Levi Martinez’s thanks to his own weak efficiency of landing just 55 of 277 punches (19.9%).

That happened in spite of Kiram and his corner attempting to massage the rules by stuffing the fighter’s nose into a small cup of a substance he sniffed during the bout, specifically after the sixth round when a member of the California State Athletic Commission noticed and confiscated the tin.

In perhaps the most entertaining moment of the fight before the eighth round, referee Raul Caiz Sr. was shown the substance and decided to launch his own investigation by smelling the substance himself between rounds.

Caiz allowed the fight to proceed, and after the bout, the head of the commission, Andy Foster, told The Times that the substance was the over-the-counter pain-relief rub, Tiger Balm, which Foster said did not rise to the level of being a banned drug.

Foster urged The Times to later come look at the substance, directing a reporter to an upstairs room, but security officers disallowed a reporter at the entry of the Forum Club and pointed him to the exit.

The Forum crowd was repulsed by the showing of both fighters through seven rounds. Then Matthysse acted on the advice of his cornerman Joel Diaz and fought more aggressively, landing a hard left to the face that knocked Kiram to the canvas early in the round.

“I didn’t feel his power when he hit me and that’s why I was able to find him later and stop him,” Matthysse said. “He felt my power.”

Kiram went down for good on a second left to the head.

HBO analyst Max Kellerman questioned if Kiram’s delayed reaction was suspicious, perhaps indicating that he didn’t want to fight anymore, but the theory seemed dubious considering Kiram was leading on one card and certainly wanted the belt to build upon his title-fight purse of $40,000.

Kiram was down for an extended period, and was taken to a local hospital afterward for precautionary reasons.

Mattyhsse, meanwhile, leaped atop a neutral ring corner with a beaming expression of satisfaction after previously losing world title shots against junior-welterweights Danny Garcia and Viktor Postol.

He said he’d like to meet Garcia in a rematch after the former two-division champion meets Brandon Rios on Feb. 17, and he also threw his hat in the ring for a possible Pacquiao return fight that could happen April 14 at Madison Square Garden.

Matthysse won’t be able to bring the type of tentativeness or lethargy that he showed Saturday night in the next bout.

At least he’ll be bringing his new belt.