Lucas Matthysse faces John Molina on Thurman-Diaz card on April 26th

By Jeff Sorby - 03/25/2014 - Comments

Lucas Matthysse (34-3, 32 KO’s) will be taking a tune-up/stay busy fight against lightweight slugger John Molina (27-3, 22 KO’s) on the Keith Thurman vs. Julio Diaz fight card on Showtime at the StubHub Center, in Carson, California, USA. The Matthysse-Molina fight should provide entertainment for boxing fans anxious to see straight slugging, even if the fight does prove to be a mismatch.

Hopefully, the Molina doesn’t fold in one round like he did against Antonio DeMarco in 2012. Matthysse is a bigger puncher than DeMarco, so it’s quite possible we could see Molina drop for the 10 count early in the fight. In that case, hopefully Golden Boy Promotions and Golden Promotions learn from the experience that they can’t match Matthysse against lightweights and expect the fights to be entertaining.

We already saw Matthysse matched up against a lightweight not too long ago when Humberto Soto, an arguably better fighter than Molina, was thrown in the ring with Matthysse in June of 2012, and Matthysse tore him apart in stopping him in the 6th round.

The 31-year-old Molina has lost 2 out of his last 5 fights in the last couple of years, and obviously his career has seen better days. He did, however, beaten the unproven and untested Mickey Bey Jr. last year in July in a come from behind 10th round TKO win, but Molina took some terrible punishment in that fight and he would have lost the fight if Bey had merely stayed away from him in the 10th and final round.

Molina won’t get that lucky against Matthysse, though, because he’s likely to get chopped down well before the 10th in this fight, and all you can hope for is that Molina makes it to the 6th round so that fans can get something out of this mismatch.

“Matthysse wants to see how he still feels at 140 pounds,” Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said to ESPN. “He might move up to 147 and try to inject himself into the Mayweather sweepstakes, but he’ll fight this fight, and then make that decision. In the meantime, we were looking for an opponent who comes to fight and with Molina, we found that.”

I’m not sure that matching Matthysse against a well-weathered slugger like Molina is the best way to determine if Matthysse should try his luck at 147. It seems to me that Schaefer is doing it backwards. Instead of matching Matthysse against a lightweight, Schaefer should be matching him against a welterweight at least.