By Keith Idec

Lucas Matthysse’s handlers hope he returns to his championship form immediately.

Ideally, the dangerous Argentine veteran will look good during his comeback bout against Emmanuel Taylor two weeks from Saturday night. If Matthysse makes an impressive return from a 19-month layoff May 6, there will be plenty of interesting options for him later this year within the welterweight division – most notably a rematch against former two-division champion Danny Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs).

But before his promoters can start seriously assessing this 34-year-old version of Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs, 1 NC), they need to see how he looks in his welterweight debut. His 10-round fight against Taylor (20-4, 14 KOs) will be part of the Canelo Alvarez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. televised undercard at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (HBO Pay-Per-View).

“Obviously, we’re not looking past Emmanuel Taylor,” Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez said during a conference call Tuesday. “Emmanuel’s a very tough guy. I was involved in the Adrien Broner fight and the [Antonio] Orozco fight, and he put up great fights with both fighters.”

The durable Taylor has not been knocked out in 24 professional fights, thus one measurement of what Matthysse has left will be whether he can stop Taylor. Matthysse has knocked out 83 percent of his opponents since he turned pro nearly 13 years ago.

The Taylor fight will mark Matthysse’s first fight since Ukraine’s Viktor Postol (28-1, 12 KOs) knocked him out in the 10th round of their October 2015 bout in Carson, California. Matthysse suffered a fractured left orbital bone during that defeat, which largely led to his extended break from boxing.

“It depends how he looks,” Gomez continued regarding Matthysse. “If he struggles, it might be a tune-up after this fight. And if he looks sensational and great, then we’re gonna sit down and go after any of the champions. Lucas Matthysse has a great name. He’s a fan-friendly fighter. The TV networks love him. He’s been on Showtime, he’s been on HBO a number of times.

“So any of the champions, [he] would love to fight them. And it would be a great fight because of his style. So it really depends on this fight. We’ll see how he does. Look, there’s a chance he could retire, and he might wanna retire if he loses this fight. So this fight is very, very important to all of us.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.