By William Mackay: Former three division world champion Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KO’s) is reportedly training like a mad man for his September 17th fight against Argentinian Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Morales-Matthysse will be fighting for the vacant WBC light welterweight title. Morales, by the way, turns 35-years-old tomorrow on Thursday and he’s starting to show signs of physically aging. Morales lost his last fight to Marcos Maidana, a fighter that doesn’t have the same boxing skills that Matthysse possesses.

Although Morales fought well for most of the fight, the fact is he struggled in the last three rounds and basically ran empty of fuel. Morales is going to have to change that problem in the Matthysee fight if he wants a chance to capture the WBC belt and get a big money fight against WBA World light welterweight champion Amir Khan. This is really what the Morales-Matthysse fight is leading up to. There isn’t anyone else for Morales to fight if he beats Matthysse other than perhaps Maidana again or Breidis Prescott. However, Morales might not want to fight Maidana again and get another beating like he got last time.

And Prescott would likely knock Morales out. He’s a lot busier and versatile compared to Maidana and would be really pounding Morales. I can see something giving with Morales and him getting knocked out by Prescott. But those aren’t the fights Morales will take if he gets by Matthysse. He’s going to go after the money fight against Khan, and badly lose.

However, I can’t see Morales beating Matthysse unless it’s by controversy. Matthysse is so much younger and fighting at a higher level than Morales right now. Ignoring the fight against Maidana where Morales had the perfect opponent for him to partially shine, he’s looked absolutely terrible in his three prior fights. That Morales would get thumped by Matthysse.

The Morales that fought Maidana would also lose to Matthysse. Morales is an old fighter fighting out of his weight class. The power is gone, the speed is gone and the once high work rate is gone. The only thing left is boxing knowledge and an ability to fight hard for about a minute of every round.