In an interview with Diego Morilla of ESPN Deportes, junior welterweight contender Lucas Matthysse doesn't sound worried about possible hometown judging in Saturday's fight on the road in Missouri against Devon Alexander, despite the fact that many felt Matthysse got a raw deal last year in the States against Zab Judah:
"It didn't affect me at all. After the Judah fight, I fought again in January and I was very confident. I knew I had fought a great fight and that I had won that fight [against Judah], but now we know that we have to start working again in order to have a good fight on Saturday. But that fight didn't affect me at all."
Matthysse (28-1, 26 KO) is a live underdog on Saturday against Alexander (21-1, 13 KO), and as I said in yesterday's podcast, I'm picking the upset in this one. I just think Matthysse is too physically strong for Alexander, who has had great trouble in his last two fights against Andriy Kotelnik (where I thought Alexander got a true hometown decision) and Timothy Bradley.
The Argentinean slugger is promising to bring the fight to Alexander, which I think could be the downfall of Alexander in this fight:
"It will be a fight that I will have to handle with a lot of intelligence and hard punches. We are going to bring the fight to him from the beginning and we are going to be victorious. First, we are going to feel him out in the first round, and then we're going to go to work on him. If we do things right, from there on we will push harder for the stoppage."
Is anyone concerned about Alexander possibly receiving favoritism from the judges fighting at home in this one? Do you think Matthysse will need a stoppage to win?