Matthysse On Provodnikov: “Ruslan Is A Tough Fighter. I have A Lot Of Respect For Him.”

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Ruslan Provodnikov v Lucas MatthysseLucas Matthysse(37-3, 34KO’s) notched up his thirty-seventh career win over Ruslan Provodnikov(24-4, 17KO’s) in Verona, New York last Saturday night with an active, disciplined display of boxing.

The fight was presumed to be an absolute war as soon as it was made, and even if it didn’t quite live up to those lofty expectations, it was still a tough grueling contest for both men.

Ruslan was, well, Ruslan. He marched forward with his gloves at chest height trying to slip punches and get close enough to explode with combinations of hurtful hooks. Unfortunately, he was getting raked with endless jabs from Matthysse, who was intent on preventing the Russian from setting his feet by turning him round and round for most of the evening. A slashing right hand opened a deep gash on Ruslan’s left eyelid in the second round that could not be closed, after which Matthysse continued to find the target with worrying regularity. He mixed hard body shots in with an accurate head attack and punished Ruslan for every defensive deficit he possesses. It is a testament to his toughness that he made it through the fight. In fact, he never even looked close to quitting and earned Matthysse’s respect for the good showing as reported on Skysports.com.

“I think I dominated the fight, I knew I had the best hits.”

“Ruslan is a tough fighter. He took everything I threw at him. I have a lot of respect for him.”

Ruslan’s heart and chin can never be questioned, but the reason we know that is because he gets hit so often. Matthysse took the game-plan Chris Algieri used to strip Ruslan of his WBO World super-lightweight title last year and turned it up to eleven; he moved less and punched more. It appears the blueprint is out there for the self-styled ’Siberian Rocky’, whose lack of jab severely inhibits his chances of getting close to his opponents without taking wave after wave of hard punches to the face. His head movement alone has proved insufficient for the second fight in a row.

The victor had to battle through some adversity too. During the latter third of the fight, he held his feet more and got caught up trading blows in the centre of the ring. Ruslan took advantage of the situation to land some hard left hooks to the head, visibly wobbling the Argentine on a couple of occasions. He managed to hold himself together though despite hurting his hand midway through the fight, and is now looking onwards and upwards toward the pinnacle of the sport.

“There was a point when I thought that they would stop the fight because of Ruslan’s cut, but his team was able to control it. I hurt my hand in the sixth round, but I kept going because I wanted to prove that I am the best in the division and that I am ready for the toughest fighters. I want to move forward and fight the winner of Mayweather-Pacquiao.”

Many fighters in and around the welterweight division are salivating at the prospect of getting the winner of Mayweather-Pacquiao, which has become the new boxing sweepstakes. Until a winner is declared on May 2nd, there are far too many fantasy match-ups in play to be able to speculate on who’s “got next”. With this strong performance, Matthysse may have gotten his name into the running.