By Dan Ambrose: #3 WBO light welterweight contender Lucas Matthysse (37-3, 34 KOs) squeaked out a narrow 12 round majority decision over #4 WBO Ruslan Provodnikov (24-4, 17 KOs) on Saturday night at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, in Verona, New York, USA. The final judges’ scores were 114-114, 115-113, and 115-113.
Matthysse turned Provodnikov’s face into hamburger in the fight after starting off quickly in the first two rounds. Provodnikov came back and fought well in rounds 3-4, 8-9 and 11-12. I thought he fought well enough to get a draw out of the fight, but two of the judges felt otherwise.
Provodnikov hurt Matthysse in the 11th with a big right hand to the head that momentarily had him weak.
By the end of the fight, Provodnikov was cut badly over his left eye, and he swelling under and around his right eye. He looked like a mess, and it’s surprising that the fight wasn’t halted. Going into the late rounds, Provodnikov;s trainer was warning him that was going to stop the fight unless he was more competitive. This seemed to energize Provodnikov because he came on strong in rounds 8, 9, 11 and 12. Matthysse fought well in the 10th to keep Provodnikov from taking that one.
Matthysse dished out a lot of punishment in the first two rounds, as well as rounds 5, 6 and 7. Provodnikov looked battered and pretty much finished off going into the 8th round. But he came back in the 8th after catching Matthysse with some big shots that got the crowd involved. This in turn energized Provodnikov to get him to fight a lot harder than he had been. At the same time Matthysse looked gassed out.
After the fight, Matthysse said something about having hurt his hand in the later rounds. He also admitted that he had been hurt in the 11th round by a right hand from Provodnikov.
When asked who he wants to fight next, Matthysse said “I want Mayweather or Pacquiao.”
That’s not a fight that will likely happen though. HBO wants to see Matthysse fight newly crowned WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford, but that’s not a given that the fight will happen because of Matthysse being promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and Crawford with Top Rank. It’s also not a fight that would make a lot of money because Crawford isn’t a big star. He’s liked by hardcore boxing fans, but he’s not well known by the casual boxing fans of the sport.
Fans would probably prefer to see Matthysse fight Provodnikov a second time rather than see Matthysse vs. Crawford.
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