Former light welterweight interim titleholder Lucas Matthysse, who has not fought since October 2015, is set to make a return to the ring according to Golden Boy Promotions.
Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez told ESPN that Matthysse would likely return to the ring around March or April. Matthysse has been out with a damaged eye and broken orbital bone.
"He's started training again," Gomez said. "He's been very, very careful with things because of the injury. He wants to make sure he is 100 percent, and when Matthysse trains he is always nonstop. He always likes to stay active but he just needs to take it slowly. So he is getting back into it but hasn't started to spar yet. What (Argentine co-promoter) Mario Arano is telling me is that come March, Lucas will be ready to fight, so we're going to go ahead and start working on that for him. But when he comes back, Matthysse wants to come back at welterweight. He wants to fight at 147 pounds, so he is moving up (from 140 pounds)."
Matthysse last fought Viktor Postol for the vacant WBC light welterweight title, but was knocked out in the 10th round of that fight. That loss snapped Matthysse's three-fight win streak. Matthysse has also challenged for the WBA light welterweight title in 2013, but lost via unanimous decision to Danny Garcia.
Gomez also said that middleweight Tureano Johnson is set to return to the ring in January. Johnson had been recovering from a right torn rotator cuff.