By Dan Ambrose: For months now WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Danny Garcia (26-0, 16 KO’s) has chosen to acknowledge the skills and power that Lucas Matthysse (34-2, 32 KO’s) brings to the ring with him in his fights. When Garcia was fighting the likes of an over-the-hill Erik Morales, he would say ‘who is Lucas Matthysse.’
Nothing much has changed on that front now that Garcia will be facing Matthysse in the ring tonight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Garcia doesn’t think Matthysse is even the best fighter that he’s faced. Garcia isn’t saying whose better, but it would have to be Amir Khan and Zab Judah.
As bad as Khan looked in his loss to Garcia and his recent close win over Julio Diaz, it’s hard to see Khan as being better than Matthysse right now. He might be in Danny’s head, but not in the minds of boxing fans. Khan looks like he’s one loss away from being over-the-hill, if he’s not there already.
Garcia said to the LA Times “He’s [Matthysse] not the best I’ve faced…I’ll see how he reacts after getting hit by a big shot. That’ll dictate the fight.”
At this point I think Matthysse would destroy both Judah and Khan with ease. Matthysse did lose to Judah three years ago by a controversial 12 round split decision in a fight that took place on the East Coast where Judah was brought up. Matthysse dominated the fight from the 5th round on and dropped Judah in the 10th. It looked like a robbery.
Matthysse has improved a lot since then, and there are probably very few fans that would give Judah much of any chance in a rematch with Matthysse. It’s a fight they could stage in New York, and Judah would still find himself fortunate if he weren’t knocked out quickly.
Garcia hasn’t said much about he will react to getting hit by Matthysse’s big shots. That’s the major question, because Matthysse is the better puncher of the two, and he hits hard with both hands and not just with his left like Garcia. Matthysse takes a really good shot as well. It’s going to be interesting to see how Garcia reacts when getting hit hard by Matthysse.
If Garcia gets knocked out tonight by Matthysse he’s going to look awfully silly given how he much he dismissed Matthysse beforehand. I guess Garcia will have to change his opinion about Matthysse. I hope Danny doesn’t have a ton of excuses like some fighters do after they get beaten.
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