Matthysse could fight in September on Canelo-Golovkin card

By Boxing News - 03/23/2016 - Comments

matthysse567676By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya believes that 33-year-old Lucas Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs9 could be ready to return to the ring later this year on a pay-per-view card in September. The PPV card would be Gennady Golovkin vs. the Golden Boy promoted Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, if that fight takes place then.

Matthysse suffered a fractured orbital bone in his 10th round knockout loss to unbeaten Ukrainian Viktor Postol last October in their fight for the vacant WBC light welterweight title. Matthysse was dropped in the 10th round after getting hit with a solid right hand to his left eye.

Matthysse then stayed down and was counted out. The injury to Matthysse’s eye has kept him out of action ever since. It’s unknown if he’ll be physically or mentally ready to fight in September or not.

Matthysse will be turning 34 in September, and he obviously doesn’t have a lot of time to come back from this injury if he wants to make something happen with what’s left of his career. The 5’7” Matthysse plans on fighting at 147 now, which may or may not be a good idea. If Matthysse couldn’t beat the likes of Postol and Danny Garcia at 140, then it’s hard to imagine he’ll do well at 147 unless he was struggling to make weight at 140.

“With Matthysse we’re expecting him to maybe be back on our next September blockbuster fight we’re going to be doing,” said De La Hoya to Ringtv.com. “And then we’ll see what we can put together for September. We’re hoping he comes back from this.”

It’s going to be difficult for Matthysse to be able to make a place for himself at 147 when he does eventually heal up. If Golden Boy can match Matthysse carefully, then he could get a title shot without getting picked off along the way by one of the younger, larger contenders in the division. However, Matthysse will likely have a hard time beating any of the existing champions at welterweight.

The best bet would be for Golden Boy to angle Matthysse for a rematch against Danny Garcia, because he’s arguably the softest of the available champions for him to fight. WBO champion Jessie Vargas is probably the weakest of the current champions at 147, but he’s promoted by Top Rank, and it’s unlikely that the 84-year-old head of the company Bob Arum would let Matthysse anywhere near Vargas. Matthysse would likely need to work his way to the #1 spot with the World Boxing Organization before he gets a crack at Vargas. That could take years. We saw how Sadam Ali still had to wait for a title shot for the WBO belt despite being the #1 contender since 2015.

“With Matthysse he has an eye issue and he’s been to the doctors and they tell him he has to rest more but at the same time Matthysse once he’s ready he has to come back and dig deep down inside and just believe in himself,” said De La Hoya.

It’s not so much Matthysse coming off of the eye injury that’s his problem. It’s more of a case of Matthysse finding a path to success at welterweight. It took him ages to get world title shots at 140, and he proved to be too small or too limited in both of those fights against Postol and Danny Garcia. Unless Golden Boy has a good patch for Matthysse at 147, he could find little success in this weight class.

Ideally, Matthysse’s best chance for a career-changing fight would be if Golden Boy matched him against Canelo. Matthysse would obviously be too small for Canelo, but he would at least get a big payday out of that fight like welterweight Amir Khan. I don’t think Golden Boy will make that move because they would take too much flak from the boxing world if they keep matching Canelo against welterweights instead of fighters his own size at middleweight.

Matthysse will likely see bigger paydays at 147 if Golden Boy can match him against the right opposition. Putting him in with someone like Andre Berto or Robert Guerrero would be great fights for him, and winnable ones.

If Matthysse can learn how to move his head, jab, and fight his way out of clinches, he could very well beat Danny Garcia in a rematch. Those were all areas in his game that led to Garcia beating him in 2013. Matthysse was roughed up by Garcia in that fight, as he was hit low all night long by Garcia. Matthysse never retaliated.



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