By William Mackay: In recent photos of Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KO’s), he’s looking really huge still for his fight against Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 KO’s) scheduled for September 17th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Morales, 34, looks to be weighing in the neighborhood of 160+ judging by the photos.

I don’t know how Morales is going to be able to melt enough of the blubber off to make the 140 pound light welterweight limit for the Matthysse fight. I guess he’s going to lose some of the flab, and then dehydrate to take off the extra weight at the weigh-in the day before the fight. But I’ve having doubts. Morales doesn’t look as well trained for this fight as he did the last time he fought against Marcos Maidana last April.

Who knows where the disconnect is for Morales. Maybe he was patting himself on the back for having fought well enough to lose by a close margin, but whatever the case, he’s still looking like a middleweight in the week old photos I saw of him. I can only imagine what his waistline must look like. Moraes likely has more than a few jelly rolls that he’s packing around his waist.

That’s not going to help him for this fight, because Matthysse likes to go to the body like nobody else. We could see Morales hitting the deck over and over again if Matthysse concentrates his shots downstairs. Maidana totally ignored hitting Morales in his soft looking midsection in their fight, focusing exclusively on throwing head shots.

That was the worst thing you can do with Morales. He can take a head shot, but his soft midsection is his weak spot right now. Matthysse put down the tough-chinned DeMarcus Corley eight times in January by focusing on the body. The body is where Matthysse needs to be focusing on to beat Morales – if he can make weight.

The fight will be for the vacant WBC light welterweight strap, and it would be a pity Morales isn’t able to have the title on the line for himself if he can’t make weight. It would still likely be available for Matthysse to win if he makes weight – and he will. But it’s going to be tough for Morales if can’t take off enough lard to get down to 140.