WBC interim light welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse (34-2, 32 KO’s) vs. WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (26-0, 16 KO’s) is official for September 14th on the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez undercard a the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
There will be a 3-city press tour for the Garcia vs. Matthysse fight hitting New York, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico.
Garcia is really up against it in this fight because if he looks anything like he did in his last fight against a past his best Zab Judah, Matthysse will knock him out fast. Matthysse is on a run of 6 straight knockout victories since losing a controversial 10 round split decision to Devon Alexander in June of 2011 in Saint Charles, Missouri. Matthysse vowed after that fight that he wasn’t going to let any more judges take away his victories from him, so he’s been knocking everyone out since and turning the judges into spectators.
Garcia is going to have to bring more game to this fight than he did against Erik Morales, Amir Khan and Judah because he looked limited in those fights, and more of a one-handed fighter than anything. Garcia will need to be able to use both hands equally with big power, and he’ll also need an awfully good chin if he wants to beat Matthysse because he’s getting hit a lot in this fight.
Matthysse won his last fight against Lamont Peterson by a 3rd round TKO last May. It was supposed to have been a competitive fight, but Matthysse mowed right through Peterson, knocking him down once in the 2nd and two more times in the 3rd to get a stoppage win. Danny Garcia was at the fight sitting in the audience and he looked stunned after Matthysse dispatched Peterson. There’s no way of knowing for sure what Garcia was thinking, but he sure looked dazed by what he had saw.