By Mark Hepplestall: Over the past two months boxing in Argentina has really been on the up with Marcos Maidana getting and losing his second world title shot and Lucas Matthysse hovering around the title contention area. These two guys are from the same country, same city, and different districts and matched away from each other all their careers.

Nobody can argue that Maidana and Matthysse best description is explosive power punchers with the heart of a lion, and therefore their worst description could be one dimensional brawlers looking for that one big shot. Maidana has the best record, fighting the likes of Andriy Kotelnik, Victor Ortiz, Victor Cayo and Amir Khan, while Lucas Matthysse hasn’t really had any fights against anybody in the top 25 Light welterweights other then Jab Judah whom defeated him. Maidana showed himself as a true contender in his defeat to Khan, he showed Heart, Power and Determination. Also Matthysse in his victory against Corley showed explosive power, stamina and determination.

So where do these boxers go from here? Well first of all they need to be kept away from skillful boxers, Maidana and Matthysse are great and exciting fighters when fighting people who want to trade, or will stand in front of them but whenever a boxer makes them fight their fight and boxes and moves these guys have been shown up by the likes of Amir Khan and Jab Judah.

Matthysse needs a name on his record; the only thing that is keeping him in the top 15 is that he has an incredible KO ratio. I would recommend that Lucas fights an all Argentinean bout with Cesar Rene Cuenca 39(1)-0(0)-0, this guy also has no good names on his record and is a good boxer but likes to stand and trade a little too often and Matthysse can punish him for this. Next he needs to really step up the quality of opposition, the likes of Corley is ok but 14 defeats before last night says it all. I would recommend a fight with a very beatable Juan Urango, the definition of one dimensional in the dictionary has a picture of Urango next to it and beating this guy will put him on the path to a title challenge. I must stress there is no point in Lucas fighting people like Lenny Daws, Victor Cayo, Serhiy Fedchenko all of these boxers are below him in the rankings and victories against these guys will not propel him up the rankings.

Maidana however must take an easy fight to get his confidence back, maybe against Motoki Sasaki 35(22)-8(3)-1 or Lenny Daws 21(9)-1(0)-2. Maidana is rated number 4 in the world and needs to keep winning to keep himself there. Next he must revenge a loss on his career, not Amir Khan, Khan’s box and move style is made for Maidana. Maidana must fight Andriy Kotelnik, the fight was close last time and Maidana has progressed since then while Kotelnik has regressed.

Within 6 to 8 months Judah will fight Kaizer Mabuza for the IBF light welterweight title and if Bradley beats Alexander the WBC title will be vacant so there are titles up for grabs, maybe the world will be given a huge bout like Maidana Vs Matthysse for the WBC. But Joan Guzman, Paul McCloskey and Ajose Olusegun will have something to say about that fight being undefeated, high in the rankings and waiting for their title shot.

However the bout that is most likely to happen would be Erik Morales vs. Juan Manuel Marquez for the WBC title, WBC Silver light welterweight title is held by Morales which basically makes him the number one contender and both himself and Marquez are looking for Mexico’s 4th weight world title. It’s not the fight I want to see, but it makes financial sense, every Mexican boxing fan will watch it and history will be made.