By Elisinio Castillo
This past Saturday night, Argentinean Lucas "The Machine" Matthysse (38-4, 35 KOs) made a smashing debut in the welterweight division.
At the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Matthysse crushed the usually durable Emmanuel "Tranzformer" Taylor in five rounds as part of the HBO Pay-Per-View undercard to the all-Mexican showdown between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Julio César Chávez Jr.
It was Matthysse's first fight since October of 2015, when he was stopped by Viktor Postol in a battle for the vacant WBC 140-pound title. Matthysse suffered a bad eye injury in that contest and needed several months of time to recover.
It was also Matthysse's first fight with veteran trainer Joel Diaz in his corner.
The hard puncher is still very motivated to get in the ring with eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao. He wants to face Pacquiao sooner than later. The Filipino boxer is set to defend his WBO welterweight title on July 1 against Jeff Horn in Australia.
"I'll have a big fight before the end of the year and I hope to get Manny Pacquiao for the world title. I was happy with the work that I did with my team, it came out as we planned it. I thought it was going to be a bit more complicated, but when he started to feel my hands - it was all over, it's a win that places me in the rankings. Training in Trelew was very good and I added many weeks with Joel Diaz in California. Now I expect a big fight to come out in September or October. My big goal is to fight for the world title with Manny Pacquiao," Matthysse told Fox Deportes.
Before he was stopped by Postol in 2015, Matthysse was under serious consideration to face Pacquiao the following year. After the unexpected loss, that opportunity went to Timothy Bradley.
