Probably the shortest world champion in history at 4'10. I had the chance of watching him fight once, and it was quite a strange sight. Not a bad fighter really held the WBO title and has a win over Mike Carbajal.
yeah i remember when he got beat by british fighter peter culshaw, who was a very under rated fighter him self
Yes. He had some BS title when I saw him fight. I saw him fight on the Tua Rahman I undercard, which also had Floyd Mayweather vs Angel Manfredy. Angel Manfredy came out with this white rapper who was wearing a white hat and suit. Turned out that was Kid Rock! What an important night in Americana.
I remember when he beat Carbajal but Carbajal was past it,but Baby Jake sure did a number on him he was like a Tazmanian devil just all over punches coming from everywhere and he had some fast hands. It was like Carbajal couldnt see the punches coming,from what I remember he pretty much shut out Carbajal. Even though I was a Carbajal fan you couldnt help but like Baby Jake too,I mean who wouldnt the guy was about the size of average 10year old but yet a top notch pro fighter.
I remember seeing him against Carbajal. It was just supposed to be a routine showcase fight for Carbajal on the undercard of Tapia-Romero, but Matlata completely outclassed him. Funny enough, I never heard anything of Matlala after that.
He defended the trinket that he won a couple of times, then lost to the then-streaking Makepula and Peter Culshaw in back to back fights and for the most part that was all she wrote. Bear in mind that he was already 35 when he scored the biggest win of his career, so Matlala didn't really have that much time to capitalize upon it. Still, he did fashion a pretty solid career for himself, and it speaks well of his persistance that he was able to hit the best form of his career at a point when most flyweights have long retired.
His fight with Dave McCauley is a very good one. He was quite a good pressure fighter, just brutally handicapped by his size and lack of general physical tools.
actually Robbi beleive Matalata is the only fighter to have won 2 world titles from 2 differetn scots
I saw him on TV plenty of times fighting British fighters. He was very good, fun to watch, a strong little fighter, technical sound and smart, and was still good in his mid-30s, unusual for a flyweight.