By William Mackay: On September 17th, Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 KO’s) squares off against boxing veteran Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KO’s) to scrap it out for the vacant WBC light welterweight title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The winner of the fight will likely be a short term champion because both are badly flawed fighters.

Matthysse will very likely outwork Morales and do more than enough to get the win. I don’t think he’ll get the win unfortunately. Matthysse isn’t a big enough name to be given a decision over a great like Morales unless he gives him a terrible beating. We already saw Matthysse get shafted twice recently against Zab Judah and Devon Alexander, and we’re about to see him get it for the third time. In a straight up fight, Morales stands no chance against Matthysse. Morales doesn’t throw enough punches now that he’s gotten old and is capable of fighting hard for the last 15 seconds of every round. But I still see the judges giving him the majority of the rounds and the win, which will set up a fight between Morales and Amir Khan.

Khan is saying he wants to fight the winner of this fight, but is really hoping it’s the 35-year-old Morales that comes out on top because Khan wants to add Morales’ famous name to his resume. It’s all pretty shallow when you think about it. Morales isn’t anywhere close to what he used to be and is coming off of a loss to Marcos Maidana, yet Khan still wants to fight him to add his name. I kind of liken it to trying to get something really prestigious but after the thing has lost it’s novelty.

It’s a bit late to be looking to be fighting Morales because he’s not the same fighter he was in his prime, and Khan won’t get the boost that thinks he will by beating Morales. Come on, did Maidana get a huge boost from beating Morales? Nope! And he wouldn’t have no matter how badly he beat him. That’s the trap with fighting old codgers. If you barely beat them, then you’re lousy. If you easily beat them, then you were expected to because they’re old. I don’t know if it’s Khan’s idea of his promoters to want to fight Morales, but I wouldn’t do it if I was a fighter. There’s no gain.