Golden Boy eyes return of Lucas Matthysse, Tureano Johnson

Golden Boy-promoted contenders Lucas Mathysse and Tureano Johnson are both healing up and looking towards a return to the ring in 2017, according to GBP president Eric Gomez.

Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs) has been out of action since getting knocked out by Viktor Postol in October 2015 where he suffered a broken orbital bone and damaged his eye. His injuries were significant enough that the tough-as-nails Argentine puncher seriously considered retirement for quite some time. But according to Gomez, Matthysse is back in the gym preparing for his return.

"He's started training again," Gomez said. "He's been very, very careful with things because of the injury. He wants to make sure he is 100 percent, and when Matthysse trains he is always nonstop. He always likes to stay active but he just needs to take it slowly. So he is getting back into it but hasn't started to spar yet.”

Gomez adds that when Matthysse returns, he’ll begin campaigning at welterweight instead of his usual 140lbs.

Similarly, middleweight Tureano Johnson (19-1, 13 KOs) has also been out of action since October 2015, when he beat Eamonn O'Kane to become Gennady Golovkin’s mandatory challenger. Johnson was expected to take on Golovkin this past April, but had to decline the bout in order to deal with a rotator cuff injury. Gomez believes Johnson will be ready to go in January.

"We'll get him a tuneup fight to knock off the rust and then we'll look for that mandatory fight. He's still in position. So we'll get him a comeback fight and after that, depending on how he looks and feels, we'll look to evaluate his performance and see if he's ready to take on that mandatory position for GGG."

How excited are you to see the guys back in action?