Lucas Matthysse begins his 2013 campaign this Saturday night (Showtime, 10 p.m.,
ET/PT) against Mike Dallas Jr. from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in
Las Vegas. “The Machine,” who systematically breaks down his foes with
brutal efficiency, is hoping this fight (which originally had him facing
the mercurial Hank Lundy) is just the first step in what will be a big
year for him.
He’ll do Dallas but he wants to go big-game hunting after this.
“The
only thing I can tell you is that I’m expecting a great year, a great
2013 with these fights. I’m defending my interim [WBC junior
welterweight] world title and, yes, I’m focused on this fight because it
means a lot because it’s the first fight of the year for myself. But
I’m looking for a very, very good year regarding big fights,” Matthysse
said through Golden Boy publicist Ramiro Gonzalez on Tuesday afternoon.
And the man he wants next is Danny Garcia, the current WBC and WBA (“super”) junior welterweight champion.
“Yes,
I make no secret about it whatsoever. I want Danny Garcia,” he stated
without hesitation. Being the WBC interim titlist, Matthysse should be
due a crack at that title sometime this year (but remember; this is the
WBC. They have a way of interpreting their rules as they see fit. Just
ask Olusegun Ajose, who was basically kept away from Erik Morales and
then Garcia for the better part of a year, then forced to face Matthysse
in September). Despite this, the native of Buenos Aires told Maxboxing,
“I feel very good because I know the WBC understands my position that I
have to fight Danny Garcia. I’ve been reading on the internet that the
fight is going to happen - has to happen - but I have to defeat Mike
Dallas and Danny Garcia has to beat Zab Judah in order to make the
fight. My people and Golden Boy and the WBC, I think we are on the same
page. We know this fight is a big fight; Danny Garcia and Lucas
Matthysse and that would make me very happy. That’s why I’m not taking
this fight easy; I have to win it in good fashion. I have to win it in
order to get that fight against Garcia.”
(Garcia
also holds a WBA belt, so dropping that particular strap is also an
option he has rather than face Matthysse in a more lucrative fight.)
But
yes, Dallas does stand in the way of Matthysse’s ambitions. While some
may view this as a tune-up tilt against an ESPN-level foe, the reality
is, it’s a lot like a playoff game in that a loss puts you back at the
end of the line. It’s one thing to be on the short end of the stick in
highly-debated decisions versus the likes of Zab Judah and Devon
Alexander but you’re expected to dominate Dallas if you’re that guy everyone says you are.
When
asked if focus has been a problem, Matthysse responds, “Not at all,”
adding, “I just went to my camp and I did the same as I did for the
other big fights that I had in the past, big concentration, because I
don’t want any mistakes. I just want to win.”
And if he does, bigger things lie ahead.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer says of Matthysse’s near-future, “We definitely want him to fight for a world title. He’s in line there for Danny Garcia, so we’ll have to see what happens with Dallas. So that’s definitely a possibility. He already is there with an interim world title and so that’s definitely a possibility. There’s so many talented fighters there at 140, which we can match him up with. Maybe the winner of Lamont Peterson-Kendall Holt is a possibility or an Amir Khan is another possibility. So there’s plenty of names there which would be a possibility. I mean, the one fight I would love to see, which really out of all those would be the ‘Cry for me, Argentina’ showdown between Lucas Matthysse and Marcos Maidana.”
Of
the Argentinean “un-Civil War,” Matthysse states, “Y’ know what? I
don’t know but I’ve always been willing to fight anybody and that
depends on the promoters. If you follow my career, I never ducked
nobody. If they say you have to fight with this guy, I’ll fight him.”
Hey, just program “The Machine” and set him on his path of destruction.
“If they say, ‘Maidana’s in the future for you,’ I will take it because
this is my job to fight.”
Regardless,
if you look at the 140-pound landscape, there are fan-friendly and
anticipated fights to be made all over. And of course, it helps that the
large majority of them are under a Golden umbrella. “The bottom line is
I expect it to be a very big year for Lucas Matthysse because I think
he is one of the top one, two, three of the 140-pounders and is always
in exciting fights. He’s the kind of guy we want to see as do fight
fans,” proclaimed Schaefer.
But
right now, no matter how popular he is with the hardcore fans,
Matthysse is still is a guy who represents high risk and low reward. His
last outing in September sold less than a 1,000 tickets at the Hard
Rock Hotel and he still doesn’t move the Nielsen needle all that much.
Regardless, Showtime is on board. Stephen Espinoza, GM and VP of
Showtime, states, “He’s a major part of the game plan. Personally, I
think he’s one of the most entertaining fighters out there. There’s a
good portion of our subscribers and your readers who feel the same. We
had to give him a fight to sort of get him on schedule with some of the
other names in the division. But essentially, a lot of the work that we
did the second half of last year was to set up the series of big fights
that is now laid out in front of him and others in that division.
“Not
to demean or look past Mike Dallas at all but if Lucas can successfully
get past that fight, you’ve got all kinds of guys that are going to be
ready to fight at about the same time. From Maidana to Garcia or Judah -
whoever wins that fight - there will be guys looking to return to the
ring at the same time that Lucas is that would make for some really
interesting fights.”
Much
like his countryman, Sergio Martinez, Matthysse is a foreigner in
America without a natural fan-base to draw upon and will need the push
of a network to reach his goals.
“No
question,” said Espinoza. “There’s a certain part of star-making that
has to do with the innate charisma and athletic performance but there’s a
lot the network can do to help. And he’s someone, for very good reason,
who could develop a very broad and devoted fan-base. He brings action
every time he comes to the ring. Never a dull moment and for that reason
alone, it’s somebody I want to highlight on our network.”
ARGENTINA
This
country is going through a renaissance regarding the “Sweet Science”
with the likes of Martinez, Matthysse and Maidana, among others.
Martinez, the reigning middleweight champion of the world, is scheduled
to defend his title on April 27th in Buenos Aires in a soccer stadium where more than 40,000 spectators are expected to show up.
“In
Argentina, boxing is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. If you
remember last year, we had three Argentineans in Vegas, something you
don’t see very often,” said Matthysse, who was part of the trio
performing in “Sin City” in 2012. “But that shows you that boxing in
Argentina is having one of its best moments. So we need to keep winning
and winning and bring more boxing from Argentina to the United States to
show our skills.”
Matthysse spent much of his early career in his home country but it’s here in the States where the money is.
“I’m
going to be honest with you; the big fights are in America. The most
important fights always happen overseas in the United States, so I’d
rather fight here in United States,” said Matthysse, who added, “but it
would be a great honor to fight in front of my people.”
KHAN
Speaking of Khan, Schaefer stated to Maxboxing on Tuesday afternoon, “He’s definitely going to be coming back on April the 20th;
that’s confirmed. The question is going to be if his fight’s going to
be from the U.S. or the U.K. He would like to do it from the U.K. and
that is a possibility. I will be discussing with Stephen Espinoza some
of the names if the fight happens to be in the U.K. The situation is,
his first choice would be Danny Garcia to get the rematch but we all
know that Danny’s going to be fighting [on February 9th] and that’s not going to work from a timing point of view. So that fight couldn’t happen for April.”
Then there are other personal matters that will affect Khan’s professional plans, according to Schaefer.
“Amir
can’t fight later in April because he’s going to get married in May and
then it’s going to be Ramadan, so he’s planning on fighting twice this
year, April 20th and then a November/December time-frame.”
WARM CALIFORNIA FLURRIES
More
on this tomorrow but it looks like the proposed fight between WBA
welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi and Shane Mosley is falling
apart. Is anyone disappointed by this?...Malignaggi says he wants to
focus on a fight against Marcos Maidana on April 27th...April 13th at the Staples Center was strongly considered for Khan’s next fight but
with the NHL lockout coming to an end, that is now a date occupied by
the L.A. Kings...Sergey Kovalev certainly made a statement against
Gabriel Campillo; didn’t he?...IBF featherweight titlist Billy Dib will
face Luis Franco on the March 1st edition of ESPN2’s “Friday
Night Fights”...Seriously, what’s with these Notre Dame guys, first
Manti Te’o and now Tim Brown?...Here’s the current condition of my
favorite place to cover boxing, the Silverdome: http://deadspin.com/5978090/the-silverdome-has-been-abandoned-to-the-elements...So are the Sacramento Kings moving or not? I’m confused...
Also from Today by Steve Kim, read:
Richard Schaefer speaks on Mayweather's Boxing Return - Update AND
Richard Schaefer speaks on Amir Khan's Boxing return - UpdateSteve can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com and he tweets at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing, where you can discuss our content with Maxboxing readers as well as chime in via our fully interactive article comments sections.
