Matthysse vs. Provodnikov a near sellout for April 18th at Turning Stone Resort & Casino, Verona, New York

By Boxing News - 03/27/2015 - Comments

matthysse09By Allan Fox: The April 18th fight between former WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov (24-3, 17 KOs) and #2 WBC, #3 WBO 140 pound contender Lucas Matthysse (36-3, 34 KOs) is almost sold out for the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, in Verona, New York, USA.

The fight will be televised on HBO Boxing After Dark as part of a split site double-header with former WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (25-0 17 KOs) facing Thomas Dulorme (22-1, 14 KOs) from the University of Texas, in Arlington, Texas, USA.

The Matthysse-Provodnikov ringside tickets sold out quick with them being all bought out in just 15 minutes. The rest tickets have been moving quickly to the point where there aren’t many remaining.

Matthysse has the advantage in boxing skills in this fight, and it’ll be surprising if he fails to use his skills. Provodnikov obviously is hoping that Matthysse will stand in one place so that he can fight him in an all-out war, but I don’t think Matthysse is going to do that.

There’s already a blue print out there on how to beat Provodnikov by Mauricio Herrera, Chris Algieri and Tim Bradley. All Matthysse has to do is follow that blue print and he should be able to win a wide decision in this fight. It might not be the war that some boxing fans think it’ll be, but Matthysse will at least be able to keep his career moving forward until he gets a title shot at some point.

WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia isn’t in any hurry to give Matthysse another fight after how hard he had to struggle to beat Matthysse in their fight in September 2013. For that reason, Matthysse has to take it easy and not wear himself out needlessly in fighting the top contenders in the division while he waits for a shot at the WBC 140 pound title.

Crawford-Dulorme should be a somewhat interesting fight if Dulorme is willing to put a lot of pressure on Crawford. That’s the only way that Dulorme has any chance of winning. If he stays on the outside all night long, he’ll make it easy for Crawford to jab him to pieces.

The only fighter that had any success against Crawford thus far was Yuriorkis Gamboa, who forced Crawford to exchange in a war. Crawford is a great counter puncher, but his technique breaks down when he’s flurried on the way Gamboa did with him. He staggered Crawford at one point in the fight.

YouTube video

If Dulorme is to have any chance of winning this fight, he’s going to have to resist clinching like he did in his fight against Karim Mayfield, and instead just leg his hands go with everything he’s got.

Crawford is moving up in weight for this fight, so he might not be ready to take the bombs that Dulorme will be hitting him with. If nothing else, Dulorme have the satisfaction to know that he at least went out on his shield rather than letting himself get out-boxed the way Crawford’s last opponent Raymundo Beltran did last November in losing a 12 round decision.



Comments are closed.