By Dan Ambrose: Light welterweight contender Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 KO’s) will finally get back in action on December 9th against an opponent to be named later in a scheduled 10 round bout in his home country of Argentina.

Matthysse’s opponent will likely be an obscure 2nd tier fighter rather than a top contender. With all the time out of the ring, Matthysse may feel he needs to ease back into action rather than immediately take on a top contender so that he can move back into title contention.

Matthysse, 29, hasn’t fought since losing a controversial 10 round split decision to Devon Alexander when he made the mistake of electing to fight Alexander on his home state of Missouri rather than a neutral venue last June.

Following that defeat, Matthysse was supposed to have fought Erik Morales for the vacant World Boxing Council light welterweight title last September, but Matthysse got sick the week before the fight and was replaced by #12 ranked contender Pablo Cesar Cano. Had Matthysse taken the fight, he’d have likely beaten Morales and would be the WBC champion today.

You can make a strong argument that Matthysse should still be unbeaten, because both of his defeats have been controversial. Before his loss to Alexander, Matthysse was beaten by Zab Judah by a 12 round split decision in a fight that took place on the east coast of the United States in Newark, New Jersey, where Judah has a large following.

It was basically a home fight for Judah, and although Matthysse appeared to win the fight in the minds of many boxing fans, he came up on the short end. The lesson here that Matthysse needs to understand is that he’s got to try and get some of these important fights in neutral venues to have a better chance at winning. He put himself in a bad situation in both of those fights by going to the home fighters’ city.