Lucas Matthysse offers to tattoo Manny Pacquiao

MANILA, Philippines — WBA welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse of Argentina has offered to tattoo Manny Pacquiao, assuring his challenger that he is a proficient artist who has inscribed body marks on himself and Argentine fighters like Marcos Maidana and Juan Carlos Reveco.

Matthysse made the surprising offer during a break in the recent filming of a soon-to-air TV special called Boxing One-On-One at the RS Video and Film Studio in Sucat. He was serious and said he uses a small machine to motor a pen in making tattoos. His body is covered with tattoos and he said he marked himself in the legs, arms and torso. Pacquiao seemed to be amused by the offer.

Pacquiao himself has tattoos although not as widespread as Matthysse. Down his left shoulder are the names of his wife Jinkee and their children. There’s a small boxing glove above his left pectoral, a tattoo that he apparently made on himself when he was 13. On his left inner forearm is a meteor tattoo and on his right shoulder is a rose with a serpent around the stem.

Matthysse will stake his WBA 147-pound crown against Pacquiao at the 16,000-seat Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur on July 15. Matthysse was recently in Manila and Kuala Lumpur with Pacquiao to promote their bout, the first major boxing promotion in Malaysia in 43 years or since Muhammad Ali retained his world heavyweight title on a 15-round decision over Joe Bugner. 

Matthysse said he’s proud of the tattoo of the Argentine map with the sun on his back and the words from the Argentine national anthem that are imprinted between his clavicles on his chest. The words are “Juremos con gloria morir” or “let us swear to die with glory.” Matthysse said he’s ready to put his life on the line in defending his belt against Pacquiao in the ring.

Matthysse said he comes from a long line of fighters in his family. His father Mario, mother Doris, sister Soledad and brother Walter were boxers. His sister’s husband Mario is the brother of former WBO flyweight and superflyweight champion Omar Narvaez, also an Argentinian. Narvaez fought two Filipinos in world title fights, halting Rexon Flores in Cordoba in 2006 and losing to Nonito Donaire on points in New York in 2011.