Mathysse vs Provodkinov Being Finalised - Heading to HBO March 28th

Potential Fight of the year...I've got mathysse by decision, should be great fight, if a timid mathysse turns up expect Provodkinov's size to take over, but edging the firepower of Lucas on this on, Career shortening fight for both.

http://www.boxingscene.com/provodnikov-matthysse-hbo-bound-network-matches-offer--87145


Showtime might be in trouble as most of their fighters have no contractual obligation to them as most big names are with haymon, who is putting his fights on NBC.

Can't help but get excited for this, two of the biggest punchers in the sport with tough exciting styles going for it

Think Matthysse is the superior boxer. Yea he's aggressive but fights with a good jab and good boxing IQ with method behind his aggression. Provodnikov is more 1 dimensional, he wants to get in and blast away, he doesn't fight 3 minutes around he fires shots in powerful bursts

Think Provodnikov is more durable, haven't seen all his fights but haven't seen him hurt or take a back step against anyone so far whereas matthysse was shaken by molina, garcia and even soto backed him up once or twice although he's still a super tough guy

On the inside provodnikov has the advantage with his short hooks but can't help see him take a hell of a lot of leather to do so, so pick a matthysse win in a barnstormer with both hurt several times

What a fight that is.

Ruslan by KO. He's never been hurt, backed up or dropped as a pro. Lucas' chin has started showing it's not as granite strong as maybe 18-24 months ago.

A timid Mathysse, KING? What's that?

I'm a fan of both, but expect a Matthysse KO. Provodnikov seems the sort of fighter to relentless plug forwards even when being bombarded and beaten up, which could sap the soul of a fighter, but Matthysse's stamina is proven. He'll keep on thudding away. If he remembers to his Ruslan's body he should take it without it being too close in my opinion. Bradley hurt Ruslan once or twice with body shots.

Although I acknowledge this has the potential to be the sort of close, violent affair that becomes hard to watch but impossible to tear one's eyes from as it progresses.

The sort of fight you wish Don Mcrae or Norman Mailer were writing lyrical descriptions of as it happened and tweeting them to you.

John Bloody Wayne wrote:A timid Mathysse, KING? What's that?

He was timid vs Garcia all fight - he was focusing on not getting hit with that left hook from round 1, instead of looking to land his own leather, against Molina at the start he wasn't willing to let his hands go, Against Judah, Alexander he started slow, not because he was a slow starter (compare him in other fights), because he was worried about what is going to come back at him, once he felt he can deal with that, he started to let his hands go

Gerry SA wrote:Ruslan by KO. He's never been hurt, backed up or dropped as a pro. Lucas' chin has started showing it's not as granite strong as maybe 18-24 months ago.

Bradley stunned him and backed him up a bit in the middle rounds

I wouldnt watch this miserable excuse of the sweet science if it was happening in my own back yard. I will be re-watching and re-scoring Hopkins v Calzaghe for the 8th time while this low grade fare is on.

HBO have hit rock bottom.............Two predictions..

Matthyse won't be able to miss even If he tries !!...................Provo will have Parkinson's by the time he's 40........

Hope this slaughter ends early..........

Catchy, if you watch hoppo calzaghe after taking amphetamines you may make it to the end and save yourself having to watch it a 9th Time to get through the full 12 rounds. Speed will keep you awake but you might need a line of coke to improve the viewing experience.

Never quite got the fanfare surrounding Mathyssee - lest we not forget that he lost close fights against the horribly average Judah/Alexander not all that long ago. That and he also ost on points to Garcia. Best win was an early knockout of Petereson, yet some here think this is going to be some sort of slaughter and Prov gets spanked?

Not saying Prov is going to win, just think some are sticking their little 5" dinglers up LM's arris a bit too often for my liking and will be a lot closer than most think.

I'll personally be backing Prov to win, going against the notion he knocks him out and instead gives a boxing lesson on the way to an emphatic UD.

Couldn't outbox a coma patient....Worst champion since Maussa.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Couldn't outbox a coma patient....Worst champion since Maussa.

Has Prov peed in your weetabix Truss?

I personally can excuse him the Algieri loss. Off night, wrong style for him - don't know. But much better champs have lost to lesser boxers before. Prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and will be backing him vs LM.

Should be a cracking slug-fest.

Prov is pretty limited, hope a big LM will tee-up a Garcia rematch so he can right that.

Coxy001 wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Couldn't outbox a coma patient....Worst champion since Maussa.

Has Prov peed in your weetabix Truss?

I personally can excuse him the Algieri loss. Off night, wrong style for him - don't know. But much better champs have lost to lesser boxers before. Prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and will be backing him vs LM.

Old man Alvarado couldn't miss his mush.........

Off night ?? ...........He's a very brave fairground fighter that can take a smash...........Unfortunately his family will be looking after him when he retires...

Judah's definitely above average and Matthysse was robbed vs Devon. Yeah he lost a competitive one to Garcia, but he has been the best 140 pounder since Bradley moved up.

Cox, genuinely can't tell if you're wumming when criticising LM fans for giving too much hype for too little substance, then predicting a Provodnikov puts on a boxing clynic. Have you ever seen a Prov fight?

Provodnikov can pressure, outwork and over-power guys, but handing out boxing lessons, Coxy? Can't see it. The only guy you could feasibly say he's done that (along with the three other things I've mentioned) to would be Alvarado - the same Alvarado who has also lost two out of three to Rios, was nigh-on shut out by a long in the tooth Marquez and who was outboxed for round after round by Prescott before pulling off a great escape, so that needs to be kept in perspective. Hey, if he starts beating Matthysse to the punch from the outside, timing and countering, tattooing him with the jab etc I'll happily eat my words, but I can't see him re-inventing himself all of a sudden. He can win, but if he does it'll be via a hard, brutal slog for me.

Interesting that you can let Provodnikov's loss to Algieri, where has was made to look pretty average once that first round was out the way, slide whereas you don't do the same for Matthysse's loss to Garcia, particularly considering that Provodnikov had an almost single-eyed opponent in front of him for most of the fight and still lost, whereas it was Matthysse who fought with effectively one eye against Garcia for half the last six rounds. Considering all aspects (not everyone thinks he's worth the tag, but Garcia by the letter of the law is the top man at 140) I'd say that Provodnikov's loss was the more disappointing of the two and probably leaves a bigger stain. Provodnikov-Algieri was competitive and a case can be made that a rematch could go differently - but the same applies to Matthysse-Garcia.

As for the Alexander loss - have you met anyone, outside of a couple of the judges who were largely panned for it, who scored that fight in favour of Devon, Coxy? Even those who don't want to attach the 'r' word to it and who have never been fans of Matthysse can't bring themselves to score it as an Alexander win from my experience. I know you're automatically programmed to say so because he lost to Khan and you simply can't give Khan even the faintest praise as a matter of principle, but Alexander isn't a "horribly average" fighter, either.

As for the fight - on paper it should be a barnstormer but every time we predict a riotous thriller we seem to end up being disappointed. If any fight can buck that trend, this should be it. Matthysse has the heavier hands and is more effective at cutting off the ring (there were plenty of times in the Bradley and Algieri fights that Provodnikov had his man in dangerous positions / situations but just couldn't box them in or pull the trigger, which arguably cost him both decisions in the long run) so I'll go with him to get the late stoppage having been hurt plenty of times and perhaps even floored himself, but first off I just want a great fight.

We've had this conversation before Chris, but I'm one of the few who didn't think Alexander matthysse was a robbery. Matthysse won his rounds clearly, but there were a lot of rounds where it was down to preference of styles and I thought you could make a good case for Alexander in a lot of them. It reminded me in that sense of macklin sturm. No doubt who the better fighter was on the night overall, but they didn't necessary win when you tot up the points. You had to be giving the benefit of doubt to Alexander in those close rounds to have him winning, so no doubt matthysse was unlucky, but I didn't see the robbery others did.

I do realise that I'm in the minority on this one though!

Yep, had you and a couple of others in mind when I mentioned those who don't want to use the 'r' word for that one, milk man. But as I said, even those in the same boat as you don't give the fight to Alexander and acknowledge that Matthysse was unlucky from my experience. They might argue it was very close, or that a draw could even be argued....But I genuinely can't recall any fan scoring the fight for Devon.

I think, potentially, that fight could be as close as 95-94 (I had 96-93, so only a one round swing from that) for Matthysse, so I get what you and others are saying in that respect. Usually, if you view a fight like that but the other guy gets the nod you can't really complain all that much, as the odd round open to interpretation can swing things significantly, especially when it's only a ten-rounder. In that sense I agree that it seems excessive to scream the word 'robbery.'

But here's the thing - even though it could potentially be only very narrowly, more or less everyone agreed that Matthysse won one way or another. One or two rounds isn't much across a whole fight, but if everyone scores it within that kind of range, but somehow two of three judges don't, I can see why the 'r' word might get flung at it.

Similar to the scenario after Groves-Froch I. Turns out a couple of the judges only had it 76-75 in favour of Groves before the stoppage. There was a sizeable minority of onlookers who tallied 77-74 instead, so from the outset you could argue that it's entirely possible that a judge could have a single round swing to narrow that gap. But when only one of fifty-odd publications had it that close, it's fair to raise a few alarms when two out of three judges come to such a score. It just seemed extremely odd and hugely coincidental that the two judges who gave the fight to Alexander might well be the only two people in town who would have done.

I'm going with Provodnikov here. I just can't envision him being beaten in a straight up punch out.

I've got Provodkinov early or Matthysse closeish ud..

I suppose Matthysse could stop the Mongol mid, mid-late or even late too but not early, I would have thought. The surprise I guess would be the latter on points.


Obviously, not confident predicting a result here and won't be betting on it. To say it could be entertaining would be stating the obvious.

Potentially career shortening fight for both. Winner to face Rios, that's if you're sick enough.

88Chris05 wrote:Yep, had you and a couple of others in mind when I mentioned those who don't want to use the 'r' word for that one, milk man. But as I said, even those in the same boat as you don't give the fight to Alexander and acknowledge that Matthysse was unlucky from my experience. They might argue it was very close, or that a draw could even be argued....But I genuinely can't recall any fan scoring the fight for Devon.

I think, potentially, that fight could be as close as 95-94 (I had 96-93, so only a one round swing from that) for Matthysse, so I get what you and others are saying in that respect. Usually, if you view a fight like that but the other guy gets the nod you can't really complain all that much, as the odd round open to interpretation can swing things significantly, especially when it's only a ten-rounder. In that sense I agree that it seems excessive to scream the word 'robbery.'

But here's the thing - even though it could potentially be only very narrowly, more or less everyone agreed that Matthysse won one way or another. One or two rounds isn't much across a whole fight, but if everyone scores it within that kind of range, but somehow two of three judges don't, I can see why the 'r' word might get flung at it.

Similar to the scenario after Groves-Froch I. Turns out a couple of the judges only had it 76-75 in favour of Groves before the stoppage. There was a sizeable minority of onlookers who tallied 77-74 instead, so from the outset you could argue that it's entirely possible that a judge could have a single round swing to narrow that gap. But when only one of fifty-odd publications had it that close, it's fair to raise a few alarms when two out of three judges come to such a score. It just seemed extremely odd and hugely coincidental that the two judges who gave the fight to Alexander might well be the only two people in town who would have done.

I watched the fight already knowing it was a 'robbery' so maybe it was my surprise at finding it pretty close that impacted my take on it. I do agree that you can have a fight that's close but the rounds are clear enough that it could only be scored 1 way, and  is a wrong un if not. Take froch groves 1, you could at a push have 77-74, but to have 76-75 you had to be blind or bent.

but to have 76-75 you had to be blind or bent

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Which is where at least 2 of the judges had it, from memory........

Yup. Must have been blind eh.

Yip...

but to have 76-75 you had to be blind or bent

Didn't tunes have it 77-73 for Froch?

Think he was 80-70 actually, which was particularly impressive given only 8 rounds had been completed..

Fight heading to to Miami or Vegas

http://www.boxingscene.com/matthysse-provodnikov-miami-vegas-venues-considered--87307