By Jason Kim: #2 WBC light welterweight contender Lucas Matthysse (31-2, 28 KO’s) and unbeaten #1 WBC Ajose Olusegun (30-0, 14 KO’s) will be squaring off tonight on Showtime for the interim World Boxing Council 140 lb title at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, The Joint, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This is the 29-year-old Matthysse’s big opportunity to prove that he deserves to be among the very best in the light welterweight division after having lost two controversial decisions to Zab Judah and Devon Alexander in the recent past. If Matthysse can’t get past the 32-year-old Olusegun tonight then he won’t have anymore excuses that he can use.

As it is, Matthysse lost out on a golden opportunity to pick up the vacant WBC light welterweight title last year when he had to pull out of a fight agaisnt Erik Morales for the vacant WBC light welterweight strap. Matthysse fell ill a week before the fight forcing the WBC and Golden Boy Promotions to dig up Pablo Cesar Cano for Morales to fight instead. This enabled Morales to win a title that he probably wouldn’t have had fought Matthysse.

Matthysse had turned things around with his career and has won his last three fight. He’s been looking really good and it’s hard to imagine that Olusegun will be able to defeat him tonight. Matthysse defeated Humberto Soto in a 5th round stoppage in his last fight. You can make an argument that Soto made a mistake in fighting someone as good as Matthysse in his first real fight at light welterweight. Soto had fought a couple of times at 140 before the Matthysse, but those fights were against lightweights that had recently moved up in weight and weren’t guys that had been fighting at 140 for a long period of time like Matthysse.

Olusegun could have problems tonight because he’s never fought anyone nearly as good as Matthysse. The best guy he’s fought is Ali Chebah and that’s it. Olusegun is going to have to learn the hard way by facing the dangerous Matthysse without the needed experience. Hopefully, Olusegun has gotten some good work with world class sparring partners to get him ready for this fight, because he’s going to have major problems if he hasn’t.