By Miguel Rivera
Argentina's Lucas Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs) will begin training with his new coach, veteran Joel Diaz, on March 25th.
Matthysse is expected to leave Argentina and arrive in California in two weeks to begin training camp for his planned debut in the welterweight division.
Matthysse is scheduled to return on Cinco De Mayo weekend, May 6th, against Emmanuel Taylor at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight will be part of the HBO Pay-Per-View undercard to the all-Mexican showdown between Canelo Álvarez and Julio César Chávez Jr.
Matthysse has been out of the ring since suffering a knockout loss at the hands of Viktor Postol in October of 2015. During that contest he took a punch directly on the eye and went down. He was having trouble seeing from the eye and stayed down for the full count.
A return was first scheduled last May as part of the undercard to Canelo vs. Amir Khan, but Matthysse needed more time to recover.
Late last year, Matthysse revealed that he was planning to invade the welterweight division and was planning to make some changes to his corner by hiring a new trainer.
"Lucas is going to arrive in California on March 25. He has been training in Argentina and we will have seven weeks, which will be a proper camp. From what I understand he has no weight problems so we will be fine. Maybe we will not get the full adaptation because [it's going to be our first camp together], but we will work very well," Joel Diaz told ESPN Deportes.
"The good thing is that I have already prepared in advance. I have my strategy plan. I have analyzed him, I have seen his fights, I know what he needs to improve with his skills and conditioning. He needs to regain confidence, he depends on his skills and he will have to make changes. We will make the adjustments. He must master not only the physical side of things, but also the psychological side as well."
"It's not an easy fight at all, but Taylor is a one-dimensional fighter. He comes forward and stops. I don't think he has the punch to hurt Lucas, but Lucas has the power to hurt him."
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