matthysse84 By Dan Ambrose: An exciting fight between light welterweight contenders Lucas Matthysse (36-3, 34 KOs) and Ruslan Provodnikov (24-3, 17 KOs) is looking good for March 28th in Atlantic City, New Jersey, according for Steve Kim. This is a great fight if it can get put together.

Matthysse hasn’t faced a big name since his loss to Danny Garcia in 2013, and Provodnikov is still trying to turn his career around after getting out-boxed by Chris Algieri last year in June in losing his WBO light welterweight title.

So Provo-Matthysse looks very promising for March 28th, but c'mon, no Atlantic City, that's a sinkhole… #boxing

— Steve Kim (@steveucnlive) January 26, 2015

If the Matthysse-Provodnikov fight gets made, it’s unknown if the vacant WBO light welterweight title will be on the line for the fight. It would be great if it were, but it’s doubtful the World Boxing Organization will sanction this fight for the title.

There’s talk of Terence Crawford getting a shot at the vacant WBO 140lb title when he moves up in weight. Presumably, the winner of the Matthysse vs. Provodnikov fight would be facing Crawford for the title.

Matthysse last fought in September of last year in defeating Roberto Ortiz in a 2nd round knockout on the Adrien Broner vs. Emmanuel Taylor card. It was thought that Ortiz would give Matthysse a good fight, but it turned out to be a real mismatch with Matthysse obliterating Ortiz.

Earlier in 2014, Matthysse had to struggle in the early rounds against John Molina before figuring him out and scoring an 11th round knockout. Molina knocked Matthysse down a couple of times early in the fight, but once Matthysse figured out that Molina was throwing mostly left hooks, he was able to block them and punish him in the 2nd half of the fight. The fight was really a mismatch after Matthysse took away Molina’s left hook.

Matthysse was beaten by Danny Garcia by a 12 round decision in September of 2013. That was the fight where it was competitive in the first six rounds until Matthysse suffered an eye injury that took away his vision in his left eye. Garcia was able to clinch, low blow and run his way to victory in the last six rounds.

The referee Tony Weeks let Garcia get away with a lot of low blows. He also scored a knockdown where Garcia shoved Matthysse into the ropes and pounded him with shots after he got entangled in the ropes until he slipped to the canvas. The shove should have negated the knockdown, but it was still scored as a knockdown. It looked like an MMA move by Garcia.

In a much criticized fight, Provodnikov defeated 40-year-old former IBF lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo by a 5th round knockout last November. Boxing fans wondered why Provodnikov needed to be matched against a shot fighter like Castillo instead of an actual contender in the division. It was a sad fight to watch, and a very strange case of match-making. You would like to see Provodnikov facing better opposition than this at his age. He’s 31, and he doesn’t have a lot of time left to be wasting time fighting guys that are past their prime.