By William Mackay: Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KO’s) and Argentinian Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 KO’s) will be battling for the vacant WBC light welterweight title on September 17th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. There’s a lot riding on this fight more than just the World Boxing Council paper title.

The winner, if it’s Morales, gets a big money fight against IBF/WBA Super World light welterweight champion Amir Khan in December. Khan has already said he wants to fight Morales if he wins, but has kept his mouth shut tight about fighting Matthysse. Khan wants to add another title to his collection. He’s got two right now and wants to stick around the light welterweight division long enough to win a third title before moving up in weight to try and get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr next year.

The fight against Khan is what Morales is shooting for and the fight that would mean a lot for boxing – at least in terms of putting together a marketable fight. Morales isn’t the best fighter in the light welterweight, and is probably no better than #12. However, he is popular and we’ve already see Matthysse lose two fights to guys in decision losses in the past year that he arguably should have won. Now it looks like Matthysse is about to get put in the same position to lose a third fight.

I honestly think Matthysse can’t win this fight unless he either knocks Morales out or knocks him down four to five times in separate rounds. It’s going to take a monumental performance from Matthysse to get a decision against a named fighter like Morales, especially with Matthysse already having been beaten recently. Having losses on your record like the ones that Matthysse recently suffered will make it harder for him to get the nod by the judges unless he knocks the stuffing out of Morales.

I already see this as a Morales win, but only because I don’t think the judges will score against a popular fighter like Morales with a big fight against Khan looming in the background.