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Lucas Matthysse will get back in the ring for a stay-busy fight on December 15 in Argentina, and with a win there will move on to a slot on the Danny Garcia vs Zab Judah undercard at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on February 9, according to BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno.
Matthysse (32-2, 30 KO) has gone 3-0 this year and seen his standing in the 140-pound division shoot up, in part due to impressive performances, and also due to an exodus of talent from that weight class. The 30-year-old contender won in February in Argentina in a fairly easy fight, then had a pair of wins on Showtime, stopping Humberto Soto on June 23, and Olusegun Ajose on September 8.
Many hoped that Matthysse would be next to land a shot at Garcia, following Garcia's destruction of Erik Morales in October, but that fight has gone to veteran Judah, instead, as Golden Boy Promotions attempts to raise Garcia's profile further. Wins over Kendall Holt, Morales, Amir Khan, and Morales again have made Garcia the No. 1 man in the division over the last 12 months, and beating Judah in Brooklyn is supposed to make him a bigger star. That may or may not happen -- Judah's not exactly in his prime anymore, as a fighter or as a draw -- but there's really no arguing that Judah isn't a bigger star than Matthysse, so the fight does make sense in its own way.
That said, positioning Matthysse on that undercard does seem to indicate that Golden Boy knows that Garcia-Matthysse will have to be done soon enough. If both were to win that night, there's a pretty good chance that the next idea is to pit them against one another. And if Golden Boy putting Garcia back in Brooklyn means that fans start getting used to traveling up from Philly to see Garcia, that gives the fight a good home, too.
Hopefully, that's the idea, for them both to win and then face one another. Garcia-Matthysse is a great fight on paper and plenty interesting. Of course, if Judah wins, all bets are off on what happens. Judah isn't promoted by Golden Boy and unless they got options on him in the event of an upset, it's a toss-up whether or not Zab would be looking to give Matthysse a rematch after that. Garcia likely has a rematch clause, so we'd probably just see that fight again. Judah beat Matthysse by debated decision back in 2010.