By Michael Collins: Amir Khan mentioned interim WBC light welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse (32-2, 30 KO’s) as someone that he might be interested in fighting on December 15th when Khan fights next. Matthysse is among several names that Khan is looking into fight on that date.
Khan said to thatboxingvoice.com “Matthysse had a great win [over Olusegun Ajose]. Maybe he can be one.”
That’s a highly ambitious choice of Khan if he does go with Matthysse, because Khan was knocked out in the 4th round by WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia in his last fight in July and has now lost his last two fights.
Normally when a fighter has lost two fights in a row they look to face an easy mark so that they can get there confidence back and recover from the punishment they took in losing. However, if Khan does with a fight against Matthysse, he would be taking a huge risk for his career. It’s something that fighters from the past would do, but you don’t see modern fighters making gutsy choices like that. Khan would get a ton of respect from boxing fans if he were to take on Matthysse. I just don’t know if that would be a sound decision on Khan’s part if he were to take the fight.
However, it looks like Khan is doing the choosing himself in terms of his opponents because it’s hard to imagine Golden Boy Promotions agreeing to let him fight Matthysse. It’s too risky. Matthysse is bigger puncher than Danny Garcia and we saw what Garcia was able to do to Khan in knocking him out in four rounds.
In watching that fight you could tell that Garcia was going to get to Khan sooner or later with his big left hooks. With Matthysse, Khan would have to worry about both of Matthysse’s hands because he’s got knockout power with both, and he’s a better body puncher than Garcia.
Matthysse also throws with a lot of power in close, and he’d give Khan a lot of problems if Khan tried to do a lot of clinching or grabbing his head to force him down the way Khan was doing against Lamont Peterson.