Roots 29: Redemption Song is set to provide new challenges for both locals as they fight at the Melbourne Pavilion on Saturday.
Matthews is coming off a professional defeat for the first time in his career, after he was downed by decision against veteran fighter Carter Lawrance at the Rebellion 33 event in March.
“I learned a lot from fighting a guy with triple my experience,” Matthews said.
“One was cutting off the ring.
“I was pushing forward, which was good, but I wasn't scoring like I should have been.
“If I just cut off the ring a little bit and cornered him a little bit more, I would have probably won the fight
“Also, my cardio, trying to maintain a consistent but strong pace throughout the five rounds.”
Despite the setback, Matthews has been put up for the main event slot at Roots 29, taking on another experienced opponent in Max Cruz at 70kg.
The two were scheduled to face off a year ago, but travel issues prevented Cruz from making it to the bout.
Matthews is expecting a similarly challenging fight to his last against Lawrance, with Cruz also a veteran overseas fighter.
“He's been in Thailand for years now, consistently,” he said.
“(He’s) got more experience than me, more five-round experience.
“He's been around, and I know that, but I reckon it's another big step, but a step in the right direction.”
Matthews expects Cruz to have a strength and height advantage in the bout, but the Kyabram fighter is looking to lean on his quickness and agility.
The main event bout will be the only five-round contest on the Roots 29 card, and Matthews’ second overall.
Fellow Wickham’s fighter Reese McMaster will be looking to improve to 2-0 after a successful debut at Roots 28, the undercard of Rebellion 33.
On that occasion, McMaster defeated Alisha Khaddour by unanimous decision.
Similarly to Matthews, McMaster identified one of the key takeaways from her debut bout as more effectively cutting off the ring to prevent her opponent escaping when she was on top.
Continuing in the 48kg weight class, McMaster this time takes on Perth fighter Maddie Black, who was also successful in her pro debut.
The Echuca fighter expects her opponent to employ a traditional style, featuring heavy strikes, with the Wickham’s team familiar with fighters out of the same gym as Black.
“We're expecting heavy hands and mainly hands and kicking, not a lot of clinching, which I was really successful with in my fight with Alisha, so hopefully that'll overwhelm her a bit,” McMaster said.
“I wasn't expecting (the clinch) to be (a strength).
“Coming from the amateurs, it’s really hard with the body armour to clinch well, so I wasn't really expecting to use it as well as I did.”
With the fighters going into more intensive ‘fight camp’ training six weeks out from their scheduled bouts, both Matthews and McMaster have had little downtime since their March bouts.
“We had a week off and then a week of just normal training, and then we're back into fight camp,” McMaster said.
“Sometimes it's good because you don't get unfit, but then it's also quite taxing.”
Matthews and McMaster will be fighting at the Melbourne Pavilion on Saturday, with bouts to begin at 6pm.
The event can also be live-streamed on pay-per-view at livecombatsports.com.au
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