By Eric Thomas: Light welterweight contender Lucas Matthysse (30-2, 28 KO’s) is glad to be facing slugger and former WBC lightweight champion Humberto Soto (58-7-2, 34 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

The Matthysse-Soto fight will be taking place on the undercard of the Victor Ortiz vs. Josesito Lopez bout and it could very well be the most exciting fight on the entire card.

Matthysse is just happy that he’s facing a slugger like Soto rather than Devon Alexander and Zab Judah, who both beat Matthysse by controversial decisions recently. Matthysse knows what to expect with Soto, who will likely be coming to slug with Matthysse rather than trying to out-box him like Alexander and Judah tried to do.

Matthysse told RingTV “Having to adjust to them [Judah and Alexander] was difficult. But with Humberto, we know that he is going to come to fight. He’s going to come to go to war. That makes me very happy.”

Agreed. Matthysse is best at going to war with his opponents and trying to overpower them. I’m not sure that Mattysse is ready for what Soto will be bringing to the ring on Saturday, however, because he’s never fought anyone with offensive skills as good as Soto.

Judah isn’t the same fighter that he once was, and he didn’t really show Matthysse the kinds of tools that he once had earlier in his career. And for Alexander, he did a lot of clinching and appeared to be weight drained for the fight. He complained about that after the fight and immediately moved up to welterweight rather than continuing to struggle to make the 140 pound division.

Matthysse is probably the bigger puncher compared to Soto. However, he doesn’t throw punches from as many angles as Soto, and he doesn’t have the work rate that Soto has. For Matthysse to beat Soto, he may be forced to either knock him out or switch to boxing if things go badly for him early on.