LUCAS MATTHYSSE vs VIVIAN HARRIS

Vivian Harris, struggling to keep his career alive, appears in Mexico on Saturday on one of those Golden Boy shows that are available only in Latin America, and sad to say the former champion is in the role of opponent against Argentina’s unbeaten Lucas Matthysse.

Harris, 31, has fallen a long way in the last couple of years — knocked out by Junior Witter in England, dropped in a shaky win over a Nicaraguan fighter and then escaping with a no decision result in his last fight when he collapsed theatrically after bumping heads with underdog Noe Bolanos in the second round.

There has long been a somewhat fragile look about Harris, but these days it seems he is almost alarmingly vulnerable.

Harris has had a six-month rest after the fiasco with Bolanos, but he has taken on the appearance of a fighter coming to the end of his career. At one time he would have been fancied not just to beat Matthysse but to outclass him. Broad in the shoulders with thin legs, he was a bit of a Thomas Hearns or Roger Mayweather type — a skilled boxer and deadly right-hand hitter who could “go” at any time if the other man landed a heavy shot.

These days, though, it seems that if Harris gets hit anywhere above the neck he is at risk of getting knocked.

On Saturday, then, Harris’s career is at stake. A loss — especially by knockout — and it will be the end of the line. If Harris can manage to reach back, though, and somehow rediscover the form of a few years ago, he can get himself back on a track that could lead to a last big fight.

My suspicion is that Harris has passed the point of no return in his career. It is three years since he last looked anything like his old self, when he outscored Juan Lazcano in Las Vegas.

When Harris lost to Witter, he survived a fourth-round knockdown and seemed to be getting into the fight in the sixth — only to get nailed and knocked out in the seventh.

Sometimes a heavy knockout defeat such as this one can stay with a fighter, and I think that this is what has happened in Harris’s case. We will know for sure on Saturday.

Matthysse, 27, has scored 24 KOs but he has been beating mostly mediocre opponents, and he has been somewhat inactive. I think that this fight is intended to be a showpiece for Matthysse (although no one in the U.S. will get to see it).

My impression of Matthysse is that he is a methodical, purposeful type of fighter who hits heavily and likes to move in behind a probing jab to get into firing range. He doesn’t waste much time in unloading the hooks and right hands, as shown by 16 wins inside two rounds.

Although Matthysse’s fight with Rogelio Castaneda ended on a no decision in three rounds, I thought the Argentinean fighter was well on his way to stopping the Mexican veteran. It looked to me as if Castaneda was cut from a punch, and this is what the slow-motion replays indicated, but the referee decided that heads had clashed.

Matthysse is considered more talented than his wild-punching brother, Walter. He was a Pan American Games gold medallist and he seems to me to have sound technique. I think he will be going after Harris, looking to get him out of the fight, and I think he will do so in about six or seven rounds.