Humberto Soto and Lucas Matthysse to battle it out on Khan-Peterson undercard on May 19th

By Boxing News - 02/16/2012 - Comments

Image: Humberto Soto and Lucas Matthysse to battle it out on Khan-Peterson undercard on May 19thBy Allan Fox: In a fight that could easily be better than the main event, former WBC lightweight champion Humberto Soto (57-7-2, 34 KO’s) will be facing his first full fledged light welterweight in Argentinian Lucas Matthysse (30-2, 28 KO’s) on the undercard of the Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson fight on May 19th at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Soto, 31, technically moved up in weight to 140 late last year in taking on and beating Jose Alfaro and Adailton De Jesus. However, those were pretty much empty wins because neither Alfaro or De Jesus are light welterweights but had recently gained weight to fight at 140 themselves. As such, Soto is really facing his first genuine light welterweight on May 19th when he faces the the 29-year-old Matthysse, who arguably should still be unbeaten at this point after getting jobbed twice in fights against Zab Judah and Devon Alexander.

Soto, 5’7 1/2″, has been used to being the bigger fighter in pretty much all of his fights during his career. But against the 5’9″ Matthysse, Soto will be the smaller guy and will have to deal with someone that probably hits harder than him, but not as often. That’s the one advantage that Soto will have in this fight that of his high work rate.

Matthysse sometimes doesn’t let his hands go enough and he finds himself in situations where he has to rally in the second half of his fights. He can’t do that with Soto because he’ll get outpointed. Matthysse needs to take the fight to Soto and punish him to the body.

Soto didn’t like his war with Urbano Antillon in December 2010, and barely won a 12 round decision in that fight. Matthysse is bigger and stronger than Antillon, and a lot more dangerous. If Soto is going to try and brawl like he’s done in the past with his opponents, then he may have chosen the wrong guy to be fighting because this is Matthysse’s expertise area and he’s got the size and the youth on Soto in this fight. He hasnt been in as many wars as Soto either.



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