Earlier today, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer announced that hard-hitting Argentinian Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 KOs) will step in and replace fellow countryman Jorge Barrios to take on 3-division world champion and Mexican legend Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KOs) on the September 17 undercard of "STAR POWER: MAYWEATHER VS. ORTIZ". According to reports, Barrios was having difficulties securing the necessary travel documents to enter the United States. The addition of the all-action Matthysse is great news for the card, as well as Matthysse himself, who will now get a chance to compete for the vacant WBC jr. welterweight title.
That being said, given the recent standards of the WBC, I'm surprised they were willing to accept a young, strong puncher like Matthysse to face Morales for their title, considering that the reason why the real champion, Timothy Bradley, was stripped was likely to give Morales an opportunity to become one of the only Mexican's to become a 4-division champion.
This event, which takes place on the weekend of Mexican Independence, may very well live up to the hype as I cant remember a pay-per-view card where the undercard was in the same class as the main event. With WBC featherweight title clash between Jhonny Gonzalez and Elio Rojas, as well as WBC jr. middleweight champion Saul Alvarez defending his title against Alfonso Gomez in a split site bout, there are now a total of four world championship fights in one night.
With so much action in one night, this event will be a refreshing sight to see. Morales always comes to fight, and so does Matthysse, and with both guys coming off of controversial losses, expect each man step into the ring with something to prove. We're practically guaranteed a war and another potential candidate for Fight of the Year. On top of that, the young Saul Alverez is always entertaining and he's progressing every day. Expect him to look spectacular en route to annihilating Gomez. Furthermore, as already mentioned, we'll see Elio Rojas and Jhonny Gonzalez battle it out for featherweight supremacy, plus we have the young, unbeaten Jessie Vargas on the bill. And of course, the cherry on top is the main event when pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather returns to the ring after a 16-month layoff to once again put it all on the line to face the young, hungry WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz.
What a night to look forward to for fight fans. As far as recent pay-per-view events go, it does not get much better than this, a great main event and a stacked undercard. With HBO heavily promoting the card, I'm going to make a bold prediction and say that this pay-per-view does around 1.8 million buys.