KUALA LUMPUR — It's none of Lucas Matthysee's business if Manny Pacquiao and Freddie Roach had not been in good terms of late. With or without the Hall of Fame trainer in Pacquiao's corner, the reigning World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight champion knows he can take care of business come July 15 when he stakes his title against the boxing legend at the Axiata Arena.
"It doesn't matter if Freddie is there or not," said the 35-year-old Argentine champion, unmindful about the slight issue surrounding on whether Roach will still train Pacquiap when he challenged Matthysee for his title.
"We're 2-1 against Freddie," noted Matthysee's manager Mario Arana.
Matthysee split his two fights opposite two of Roach's well-known fighters in Ruslan Provodnikov and Viktor Postol.
The Argentine scored a disputed majority decision against Provodnikov in their 2015 fight in New York.
Five months later, Matthysee lost against Postol in an eighth round knockout to win the World Boxing Council (WBC) junior welterweight title.
The Argentine went on his knee and didn't make an effort to get up as he later claimed he suffered an injury on his eye.
Matthysee won't fight for the next one-and-a-half year before making a comeback with a fifth round stoppage of Emmanuel Taylor in May of last year.
The victory eventually set up Matthysee for a shot at the WBA crown of Tewa Kiram last January, destroying the deposed champ from Thailand in just eighth rounds.
"I'm a pretty big puncher with both hands and that gives me a lot of confidence. More importantly my condition and with the way I'm gonna work in the gym give me the added confidence," said the champ, who holds a 39-4 record with 36 KOs.
Both Matthysee and Pacquiao got a personal look at the fight venue on Saturday when their respective teams visited the Bukit Jalil Stadium together.
After the short tour, the two fighters went straight at the world renowned Petronas Tower for a promotional foto to cap the end of the two-city press tour that kicked off in Manila on Wednesday.
Pacquiao and the Matthysee camps returned to Manila late Saturday, with the Argentine and his team going back to Los Angeles on Sunday.
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