Floyd Mayweather vs Victor Ortiz: Illness Stops Matthysse from Fighting Morales

Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 Knockouts) has dropped out of his scheduled battle with Erik Morales (51-7, 35 Knockouts) for the vacant WBA junior welterweight world championship on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather vs Victor Ortiz September 17 on HBO PPV.

The fight would've been the most lucrative and high profile of Matthysse's career. According to Boxing Scene, Matthysse has come down with an undisclosed illness.

Commentating on the unfortunate turn of events, Matthysse had this to say:

"

I feel very hurt. This was the fight of my life. But I just couldn't get up to fight. I am not able to. I apologize to the [WBC] for this unexpected and painful situation.

"

Another report from Boxing Scene says that Anthony Crolla (20-2, 8 Knockouts) may become Matthysse's replacement if another replacement cannot be sanctioned by the WBC in time to compete against Morales.

My Two Cents

This is very disappointing news, or at least it could be. Stay with me. There's plenty of great fighters that can replace Morales.

One opponent in particular is the hard-hitter Marcos Maidana (30-2, 27 Knockouts) who doesn't even have an official opponent yet for his scrambled together September 23 fight in his home country of Argentina.

Golden Boy is Morales and Maidana's promoter. If they want Morales to have an exciting opponent, they'll pull Maidana out of whatever he's currently doing to get him in the ring with Morales.

Maidana and Morales had an exciting close fight this past April. Maidana eked out a majority decision with some believing the Argentinean to have lost to the Mexican legend.

A rematch would not only give Maidana the chance to clarify that he is the better fighter, it would also give IBF and WBA junior welterweight world champion Amir Khan (26-0, 17 Knockouts) another belt to go after.

Khan has said that he's after belts in the junior welterweight division in an attempt to become the unified champion.

WBO champion Timothy Bradley (28-0, 11 Knockouts) had his chance but is currently in litigation with his current promoters.

Maidana and Khan have already faced each other once in what many called the fight of the year for 2010. 

Is there a greater way to cap off Khan's reign at junior welterweight than to participate in a rematch of the best fight of his career so far? I think not.