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Oscar De La Hoya wants to bring back Matthysse in ‘Sept. Blockbuster fight’

Fighters Network
22
Mar

Lucas Matthysse vs Roberto Ortiz fukuda

Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya has a “blockbuster” idea for when Lucas Matthysse will return to the ring, subtly hinting he may bring him back on the undercard of a middleweight unification match between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin later this year.

Sidelined because of a fractured orbital bone, De La Hoya hopes the Argentinian slugger is available for a “September blockbuster fight” in the works, he told RingTV.com on Tuesday. De La Hoya was coy about the big event, leaving one to guess if he was referring to a possible blockbuster fight between Alvarez and Golovkin that could take place later this year if both camps agree to a date.

“With Matthysse we’re expecting him to maybe be back on our next September blockbuster fight we’re going to be doing,” De La Hoya told RingTV.com. “And then we’ll see how he looks. We’re putting something together and we’re obviously focusing on Cinco De Mayo,” De La Hoya said, referring to Alvarez’s RING and WBC championship fight with Amir Khan on May 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “And then we’ll see what we can put together for September.”



De La Hoya said he plans to touch base with Matthysse’s camp in early April to gauge a timeframe for when he can resume training. Matthysse sustained an eye injury in his WBC junior welterweight title loss in October to Viktor Postol when he was stopped in the 10th round. Matthysse was in talks to face Mauricio Herrera as the co-feature to Canelo-Khan on HBO PPV on May 7, but the lingering injury scuttled those plans.

“Literally we’re going to speak next month and then we’re going to take it from there,” De La Hoya said. “But we’re hoping he comes back from this.” De La Hoya hopes that Matthysse is the same free-swinger he was before the injury and isn’t tentative when he returns.

“With Matthysse he has an eye issue and he’s been to the doctors and they tell him he has to rest more but at the same time Matthysse once he’s ready he has to come back and dig deep down inside and just believe in himself,” he said. “When any fighter takes a defeat it’s humbling,” he went on. “It’s hard to get yourself in that right state of mind and come back stronger than ever. It’s really difficult but fighters who do it they do come back stronger. They do come back with more motivation to prove to anyone that he can come back.”

 

Mitch Abramson is a former reporter for the New York Daily News. He can be reached on Twitter at: @Mabramson13.

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