Lucas Matthysse is a welterweight trying to make a career comeback in a deep 147-pound division. Jorge Linares has won 12-straight fights and is considered the 135-pound champion, but until he faces and beats other top lightweights, there will still be questions about if he is as good as he once was.
Matthysse and Linares are the headliners on Saturday night?s HBO card (10:30 p.m. ET/PT), and both are heavily favored to win their fights (Matthysse is a -1400 favorite against Tewa Kiram, while Linares is a -3000 vs. Mercito Gesta). And as long as both favorites win, the HBO card isn?t really about Saturday night. It?s more about what?s in the future for Matthysse and Linares.
For the 32-year-old Linares (43-3, 27 KOs), it?s a future that could mean matches against Mikey Garcia or Vasyl Lomachenko.
“Those fights keep coming up, but I’m not the one bringing them up. I know people want to see that,” Linares said, via the Los Angeles Times. “I welcome those fights in the not too distant future, but I’m not concentrating on that now. To me, the most important thing is Mercito Gesta on Saturday night.?
For Matthysse (38-4, 35 KOs), he wants to continue to win in a stacked division that could make him plenty of money as the 35-year-old embarks in the last phase of his career.
?I?ve beaten the best at 140 pounds, and now I?ll beat the best at 147 pounds,? Matthysse said, via Bad Left Hook. ?A win against Kiram will put me at the top of the division.?
Well, not quite. But a win would move him up into possible fights against the likes of Keith Thurman, who is eventually thinking ahead toward a matchup vs. Errol Spence.
Matthysse?s opponent Saturday night is virtually unknown. Kiram is 38-0 with 28 knockouts, but his opponents are just as unknown as he is, and he?s never fought outside his native Thailand. Nobody seems to know whether he can compete vs. Matthysse.
As for Gesta, most observers aren?t giving him much of a chance. Except for his trainer Freddie Roach, who briefly worked with Linares and who had no problem blasting him this week to a reporter.
?I?ve seen him quit before,? Roach told RingTV. ?Fighters who quit, I don?t like to train. If he bleeds a little bit, he quits. It?s true. Look at his past record.?
Gesta probably doesn?t have enough talent or power to make Linares think about quitting. As for Linares? future, assuming he beats Gesta, he told Bad Left Hook, ?I?d like to fight three times this year. My ideal plan, and it would be the highest of the high, would be to fight [Vasyl] Lomachenko this year, and then go into a fight with Mikey Garcia in 2019.?
Errol Spence ratings: In his first time headlining a primetime Showtime card, Errol Spence earned solid though not spectacular ratings for his stupendous TKO of Lamont Peterson last Saturday.
As noted by Boxing Scene, the main event averaged 637,000 viewers and peaked at 695,000. Based on last year?s premium cable showings, the Spence rating would have ranked as the 23rd-highest.
The last time Spence?currently No. 6 on the Boxing Pound-For-Pound Moneymakers list?fought on Showtime, he only drew an average of 291,000 with a peak of 337,000 for his TKO victory against Kell Brook (though that was broadcast on a Saturday afternoon). When Spence knocked out Leonard Bundu on NBC in 2016, he drew an average of 4.6 million viewers with a peak of 6.3 million.
Anthony Joshua can still sell tickets: While knocking out Wladimir Klitschko last April, Anthony Joshua drew 90,000 fans to Wembley Stadium. When he stopped Carlos Takam in October, 78,000 fans invaded Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales to watch.
Not surprisingly, the Anthony Joshua-Joseph Parker clash in March already is selling plenty of tickets.
Another great night of boxing guaranteed with over 70,000 tickets already sold for #JoshuaParker
Further tickets on-sale Monday
Limited tickets and coach packages remain available for March 31 showdown
FULL STORY | https://t.co/kTIxuhrN0Z pic.twitter.com/WBJKmvo2DO
? Principality Stadium (@principalitysta) January 23, 2018
As of this writing, Joshua is a -1100 betting favorite vs. Parker.
