By Dan Ambrose: On June 25th, once beaten light welterweight contender Lucas Martin Matthysse (28-1, 26 KO’s) fights former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (21-1, 13 KO’s) at the Family Arena, in Saint Charles, Missouri. This fight is a weeding out fight to find a future opponent for one of the current champions. Alexander lost his last fight against Timothy Bradley when Alexander couldn’t handle the pressure from Bradley and ended folding in the 10th after a clash of heads.

Alexander will be facing even worse pressure against Matthysse who will be no doubt closely following the bluer print skillfully created by Bradley last January. Matthysse punches harder than Bradley and is a much better body puncher compared to him. We saw Matthysse break down and stop a very tough DeMarcus Corlery in an 8th round TKO bout in January in a fight in which Matthysse knocked Corley to the canvas eight separate times with a series of body and head shots.

Compare what Matthysse did to Corley to that of big sluggers Marcos Maidana and Thomas Dulorme, both of which had to settle for winning by decision over Corley. Matthysse is much more dangerous and harder to deal with because he punches so well to the body and he also has an excellent jab. Matthysse is a very smart fighter and knows how to win. His only defeated was to Zab Judah last year in November in a controversial 12 round decision loss in Judah’s home town.

Matthysse has learned from that loss and will be looking to jump on Alexander early and go to the body to try and wear him down. If Bradley is expecting Matthysse to be one of his victims like Juan Urango and Junior Witter he’s sadly mistaken. Matthysse will be bringing much more to the table than those guys were able to. Bradley likes to fight in close as well, and he’s not much of a mover. He’s probably going to have to slug with Matthysse if he wants to stay in this fight for any length of time However, that will play into Matthysse’s hand if he comes forward looking to slug with him.