{"id":45075,"date":"2012-06-22T00:02:12","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T05:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=19451"},"modified":"2012-06-22T00:02:12","modified_gmt":"2012-06-22T05:02:12","slug":"boxing-news-victor-ortiz-humberto-soto-lucas-matthysse-get-ready-to-rumble-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=45075","title":{"rendered":"BOXING NEWS: Victor Ortiz, Humberto Soto & Lucas Matthysse Get Ready to Rumble"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Geno McGahee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Three-Time World Champion Humberto \u201cZorrita\u201d Soto will seek to join rare company among active fighters with 60 wins as he pursues his 60th professional victory when he faces the always-dangerous and hard-hitting Lucas Matthysse in a battle of world-ranked super lightweights in the co-featured fight on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING on Saturday, June 23 live on SHOWTIME\u00ae (9 p.m. ET\/PT, delayed on the West Coast) from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, Calif.<\/p>\n

Soto (59-7-2, 34 KO\u2019s), of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, will battle Matthysse for the vacant WBC Continental Americas super lightweight title and look to extend his current 15-fight winning streak. He\u2019ll also look to push himself higher in the world ratings where he is already rated number two by the World Boxing Council (WBC), number three by the World Boxing Association (WBA) and number seven by the World Boxing Organization (WBO).<\/p>\n

Matthysse (30-2, 28 KO\u2019s), whose concussive power led him to scored nine knockdowns in a fight against former World Champion DeMarcus Corley, has won his last two fights and will be making his fifth start in the United States on Saturday night. Matthysse\u2019s only losses came via controversial split decisions to former World Champions Devon Alexander and Zab Judah in a pair of fights that many ringside observers felt Matthysse won. A native of Trelew, Argentina, Matthysse is rated number four in the world by the WBC, number six by the WBA and number eleven by the WBO.<\/p>\n

Soto and Matthysse\u2019s 12-round fight will immediately precede what should be an exciting 12-round main event between former World Champion, Kansas native Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) who now resides in Ventura, Calif., and contender Josesito Lopez (29-4, 17 KO’s) of Riverside, Calif.<\/p>\n

Tickets priced at $250, $150, $100 and $50 are available online at www.staplescenter.com, www.ticketmaster.com, via Ticketmaster charge-by-phone lines at (800)745-3000 or at STAPLES Center box office.<\/p>\n

If triumphant, Soto at 32 years old, will join a handful of active fighters with 60 or more wins, including James Toney, Jorge Arce, Jose Luis Castillo, Luis Ramon \u201cYori Boy\u201d Campos and Pongsaklek Wonjongkam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning 60 fights would be great, but winning another world title is what I really want,\u2019\u2019 said Soto who turned professional at 17 years old in September of 1997. \u201cI\u2019ve always worked very hard in training trying to learn different things. I\u2019ve always been very dedicated in the gym. Matthysse is a great fighter with a very respectful power punch. I’m going to fight a very intelligent fight. I’m going to follow my corner’s directions and go in there and outbox him and be the smarter fighter.”<\/p>\n

A terrific counter-puncher with good overall skills and movement, the crowd-pleasing 5-foot-7 \u00bd-inch Soto has fought excellent opposition throughout his career, including former World Champions David Diaz, Jesus Chavez, Joan Guzman, Jorge Solis and Kevin Kelley.<\/p>\n

Soto captured the WBC super featherweight title in December 2008 and the WBC Lightweight World crown in March 2010. He made three successful defenses of the 130-pound belt and successfully retained the 135-pound crown on four occasions.<\/p>\n

One of his most memorable title defenses came in a close, unanimous 12-round decision win over the brave and determined Urbano Antillon in a spectacular, fast-paced, give-and-take slugfest on Dec. 4, 2010 in Anaheim, Calif.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I won more clearly than the judges had it (115-112, 114-113 twice), but without a doubt it was the toughest fight of my career,\u2019\u2019 Soto said. \u201cThere were a lot of rough tactics from him (Antillon threw Soto to the canvas three times), but I expected that which is why I never became frustrated by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four of Soto\u2019s defeats and both of his draws came during his first three years as a professional. Soto\u2019s last loss came via a controversial fourth-round disqualification in June 2008. He is coming off of a unanimous 10-round decision over Claudinei Lacerda last April 7 in Cancun, Mexico.<\/p>\n

Matthysse, a solid amateur before turning professional in June 2004, will look to turn what Soto hopes will be a boxing match into a brawl. The Argentine, who is well known for his thudding power, would be undefeated if only he\u2019d received the benefit of the doubt in two very controversial and questionable points losses to Judah and Alexander (in which he knocked both of them down) in what amounted to home games for them.<\/p>\n

The younger brother of retired former welterweight world title challenger Walter Matthysse, Lucas is coming off of two knockout wins in his native Argentina. In his lone outing this year, he scored a dominant sixth-round technical knockout win over Angel Martinez on Feb. 10. Prior to that, on Dec. 9 the 5-foot-9, 29-year-old knocked out Sergio Priotti in the fourth round.<\/p>\n

Before that, Matthysse fought three left-handed former world champions in a row \u2013 Judah on Nov. 6, 2010, Corley on Jan. 21, 2011 and Alexander on June 25, 2011.<\/p>\n

A two-fisted slugger who tends to start slowly, Matthysse spotted Alexander an early lead but rallied to drop him with a right hand in the fourth. He rocked Alexander in the seventh, eighth and tenth rounds, but it wasn\u2019t enough as he lost by one point on one of the scorecards (95-94), by three on another (96-93) while winning by three (96-93) on the third card.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was robbed,\u2019\u2019 Matthysse said. \u201cI gave it my all and it was a tough fight, but I thought I won. He\u2019s lucky he won the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aggressive-minded Matthysse obliterated Corley in a fight in Argentina, flooring him twice in the fifth round, once in the sixth, three times in the seventh and three times in the eighth. The referee finally halted the slaughter at 2:00 of the eighth.<\/p>\n

Against Judah, Matthysse also overcame an early deficit before coming on strong in the late rounds, registering a knockdown in the tenth round and dominating the 11th and 12th stanzas. However, he came up on the wrong end of a split decision by the scores of 114-113 twice and 113-114.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Argentina, I win this fight,\u201d Matthysse said. \u201cAround the world, I win this fight, but he got the home decision. Zab never hurt me. I fought my fight and pressured him the whole time and I closed the championship rounds. I clearly won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding his upcoming assignment against Soto, Matthysse, a tattoo artist in his spare time outside the ring, said, \u201cIt\u2019s very simple, I need to go to war. I need to put a lot of pressure on him and I need to work hard and win every round. That\u2019s the gameplan \u2013 go to war. I\u2019m going to leave it all in the ring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOrtiz vs. Lopez,\u201d a 12-round fight for the vacant WBC Silver Welterweight Championship taking place Saturday, June 23, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, Calif., is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Goossen Tutor Promotions and Thompson Boxing Promotions and sponsored by Corona, DeWalt Tools and AT&T. The co-feature will see former Three-Division World Champion Humberto \u201cZorrita\u201d Soto battle Argentinean knockout artist Lucas Matthysse in a 12-round fight for the vacant WBC Continental Americas Super Lightweight title which is presented in association with Baja Boxing Promotions and Arano Box Promotions. The SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING doubleheader begins live at 9:00 p.m. ET\/PT (delayed on the West Coast) with preliminary fights airing on SHOWTIME EXTREME at 7:00 p.m. ET\/PT (delayed on the West Coast).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Geno McGahee Former Three-Time World Champion Humberto \u201cZorrita\u201d Soto will seek to join rare company among active fighters with 60 wins as he pursues his 60th professional victory when he faces the always-dangerous and hard-hitting Lucas Matthysse in a battle of world-ranked super lightweights in the co-featured fight on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING on Saturday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[105,2138,659,902],"class_list":["post-45075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-boxing","tag-humberto-soto","tag-showtime","tag-victor-ortiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}