The boxing world received some interesting news today when it was announced that rough and ready Argentinean Lucas Matthyse will likely be filling in for former champion Jorge Barrios against living legend Erik ?El Terrible? Morales this coming September 17th. The Matthyse-Morales fight will go down at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada and will be a part of the Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz pay-per-view telecast.
According to Jhonny Gonzalez of BoxingScene.com, Barrios would have been an interesting choice given his wild-swinging nature in the ring but the bald-headed enigma is said to be having legal issues with leaving his native Argentina. Matthyse, also hailing from Argentina and the city of Trelew, jumped at the offer and will now have a chance to face one of this generation?s best fighters while also trying to lift the vacant WBC junior welterweight title in the air.
Matthyse is coming off of a questionable split-decision loss to former champion Devon Alexander on June 25th, a fight in which he scored a 3rd round knockdown and took the initiative for much of the night, and two fights prior he was on the end of another close call as he dropped a split-decision to former IBF title holder Zab Judah in Newark, New Jersey. While those losses were obviously hard to cope with, a fight with Morales may be just what the 28-year old needs at this point, seeing as though the Tijuana fighter has always shown a willingness to engage.
Morales resurfaced from a two and a half-year absence from the sport last year and shocked many by taking interim WBA junior welterweight champion Marcos Maidana to the limit over twelve wild rounds this past April. Weathering the early bombs from Maidana, Morales showed great counterpunching skills throughout the fight but would end up losing a close decision in a fight that put him back into the picture despite the loss.
