MATTHYSSE-PROVODNIKOV HAD 1950S THROWBACK FEEL

Published

10 years ago

April 19, 2015

VERONA, N.Y. – For a fight that was so right in a lot of ways, Lucas Matthysse’s 12-round, majority decision over Ruslan Provodnikov here Saturday night at the Turning Stone Resort Casino somehow seemed very wrong.

A throwback kind of fight with a definite 1950s feel shouldn’t have been contested in an antiseptic, smoke-free arena. Where were the men in fedoras, unfiltered cigarettes dangling from their lower lips, a bluish haze of smoke rising to the rafters like a rolling fog bank? Why weren’t the reporters on press row pecking away on manual typewriters instead of fancy, modernistic word processors? As capable as HBO’s Jim Lampley is as a blow-by-blow announcer, shouldn’t it have been Don Dunphy calling the action at ringside? And wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for the images on America’s television screens to have been in fuzzy black-and-white instead of high-definition color?

That’s what happens when one bloodied fighter (Provodnikov) charges ahead like he thinks he’s Jake LaMotta or Carmen Basilio, and the more skillful combatant (Matthysse) attempts to repel the Raging Russian as if he were an Argentine knockoff of Sugar Ray Robinson. Given the bop-’til-you-drop reputations of these super lightweight contenders, there was more than a little anticipation that Matthysse-Provodinkov would be an instant classic, and the early leader for designation as 2015’s Fight of the Year.

What took place might or might not have risen to that standard, but in any case it left a sellout crowd hoarse from cheering and set the bar high for two better fighters, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, to attempt to clear when they meet on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

“The fight was excellent. It exceeded everyone’s expectations,” gushed Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya, who promotes Matthysse.

“The best fight of the year by far, in my opinion,” offered Art Pelullo of Banner Promotions, who has Provodnikov. “Those two guys are warriors. They were both hurt at various points throughout the fight, but they kept fighting to the very end. That’s what boxing is all about.”

Well, at least it should be, but often isn’t. On the same night that Matthysse and, especially, Provodnikov ignored pain and near-exhaustion as if they were nothing more than minor distractions, another high-profile fighter, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., declined to come out for the 10th round of a bout he was losing badly to light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara in Carson, Calif.

And on the non-televised undercard of Matthysse-Provodnikov, super welterweight Jonathan Batista begged out after five rounds of his scheduled 10-rounder with Eddie Gomez, although Batista did not appear to be in visible distress.

“Did you hear about Chavez? He quit on the stool,” Pelullo was telling someone before the postfight press conference at the Turning Stone began, as if such an occurrence would be unthinkable to the likes of Matthysse (37-3, 34 KOs) and, maybe even more so, Provodnikov (24-4, 17 KOs), who soaks up punishment like a sponge and keeps coming back for more.

Provodnikov’s left eye began to swell less than a minute into the first round, and by the third his face was a crazy-quilt of bumps, bruises and blood. He was not only losing, but taking a shellacking, and even his most ardent supporters had to believe that, big heart or not, he would simply be too battered to be allowed to continue much longer.

But like Basilio, LaMotta and a couple of updated versions of themselves, Matthew Saad Muhammad and Arturo Gatti, Provodnikov is allowed much leeway by referees and ring physicians because, well, he often is at his most dangerous when the outlook appears to be at its bleakest. He started to get close enough to Matthysse to land some telling blows of his own, and he somehow was able to rally to clearly win the 10th through 12th rounds, even staggering the Argentinian in Round 11. As it turned out, the fight probably would have ended in a majority draw had Matthysse gone down then; judges John McKaie and Glenn Feldman each scored it 115-113 for Matthysse while Don Ackerman submitted a scorecard dead-even at 114-all.

“Yeah, he hurt me,” Matthysse admitted of his 11th-round shimmy-shake. “But I was able to survive the onslaught. He’s a very strong fighter. He just keeps coming. It was very hard for me to keep him from coming forward.”

Pelullo has seen the “Siberian Rocky” do it again and again, so he was hardly surprised that Provodnikov succeeded in turning what was shaping up as a one-sided fight into something of a cliffhanger.

“He has the mentality that he’s never going to give up and he’s never going to give in,” Pelullo said. “That’s why he’s always in every fight, because he’s going to fight to the end. That’s just how he is. He got better in the 10th, 11th and 12th rounds. Can you believe it? The kid is amazing.”

Punch statistics compiled by CompuBox, never an indisputably accurate gauge of what the outcome of a particular fight should be, supported the notion that Matthysse had done enough to put more distance between himself and Provodnikov than was reflected by the scorecards. Matthysse landed 327 of 1,034 punches, including 133 of 625 jabs, while Provodnikov was 201 of 755, finding the range of just 45 of 194 jabs.

“I didn’t see the fight as close,” De La Hoya opined. “I gave Provodnikov maybe four rounds. Lucas had a great game plan and he fought a great fight.”

So what’s next for each man? Pelullo said an immediate rematch was warranted, and Provodnikov – who conceded that Matthysse deserved to win the fight – said he was amenable to a do-over. But De La Hoya doesn’t think that is the best course of action for Matthysse, who now finds himself with an array of attractive choices at 140 pounds as well as at 147. One could be a match with Terence Crawford, the Boxing Writers Association of America’s 2014 Fighter of the Year, whose first bout of 2015 saw him register a sixth-round stoppage of Thomas Dulorme for the vacant WBO super lightweight title in Arlington, Texas, the first half of HBO’s split-site doubleheader that preceded Matthysse-Provodnikov.

Then again …

“I said before this fight that Lucas deserves a big fight, a major fight, against Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather,” De La Hoya said. “Those are the biggest names out there – not necessary the toughest , because the toughest was Provodnikov. Provodikov has one the biggest hearts I’ve ever seen and we wish him all the best, but we’re moving on.”

Provodnikov will not be lacking work regardless of what Matthysse elects to do because, his admittedly limited skill set aside, he is the kind of action fighter that fans are drawn to. His gutty performance against Matthysse called to mind what St. Louis Cardinals manager Johnny Keane said about his ace righthander, Bob Gibson, when he left Gibson in to finish the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1964 World Series, despite the fact he had pitched a 10-inning complete game two days earlier and had given up two home runs.

“I made a commitment to his heart,” Keane said.

After what took place Saturday night in this central New York hamlet, that outlook seems perfectly reasonable.

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Bernard Fernandez

Friday Boxing Recaps: Observations on Conlan, Eubank, Bahdi, and David Jimenez

Published

2 days ago

March 8, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Friday Boxing Recaps: Observations on Conlan, Eubank, Bahdi, and David Jimenez

March 7 was an unusually heavy Friday for professional boxing. The show that warranted the most ink was the all-female card in London, a tour-de-force for the super-talented Lauren Price, but there were important fights on other continents.

Brighton

Michael Conlan, who sat out all of 2024 on the heels of being stopped in three of his previous five, returned to the ring in the British seaside resort city of Brighton in a shake-off-the-rust, 8-rounder against Asad Asif Khan, a 31-year-old Indian from Calcutta making his first appearance in a British ring.

Conlan, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist who famously signed with Top Rank coming out of the amateur ranks, is now 33 years old. Against Khan, he was far from impressive, but did enough to win by a 78-74 score and lock in a match with Spain’s Cristobal Lorente, the European featherweight champion.

Conlan, who improved to 19-3 (9), absorbed a lot of punishment in those three matches that he lost. With his deep amateur background, Michael has a lot of mileage on him and he would have been smart to call it quits after his embarrassingly one-sided defeat to Luis Alberto Lopez. His frayed reflexes speak to something more than ring rust. Heading in, Khan brought a 19-5-1 record but had scored only five wins inside the distance.

Conlan vs Khan was the co-feature. In the main event, Brighton welterweight Harlem Eubank, the cousin of Chris Eubank Jr, improved to 21-0 (9 KOs) with a dominant performance over Conlan’s Belfast homie Tyrone McKenna. Eubank was credited with three knockdowns, all the result of body punches, before referee John Latham had seen enough and pulled the plug at the 2:09 mark of round 10. It was the fourth loss in his last six outings for the 35-year-old McKenna (24-6-1).

Harlem Eubank wants to fight Conor Benn next and says he is willing to wait until after his cousin “wipes Benn out.” Chris Eubank Jr vs Benn is slated for April 26 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The North London facility, which has a retractable roof, is the third-largest soccer stadium in England.

Toronto

Local fan favorite Lucas Bahdi and his stablemate Sara Bailey were the headliners on last night’s card at the Great Canadian Casino Resort in Toronto. The event marked the first incursion of Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions into Canada.

Bahdi, who is from Niagara Falls but trains in Toronto, burst out of obscurity in July of last year in Tampa, Florida, with a spectacular one-punch knockout of heavily-hyped Ashton “H2O” Sylva. His next fight, on the undercard of Jake Paul’s match with Mike Tyson, was less “noisy” and the same could be said of his homecoming fight with Ryan James Racaza, an undefeated (15-0) but obscure southpaw from the Philippines who was making his North American debut.

Bahdi vs Racaza was a technical fight that didn’t warm up until Bahdi produced a knockdown in round seven with a sweeping left hook, a glancing blow that appeared to land behind Racaza’s ear. The Filipino was up in a jiff, looking at the referee as if to say, “this dude just hit me with a rabbit punch.”

The judges had it 99-90, 97-92, and 96-93 for the victorious Bahdi (19-0) who was the subject of a recent profile on these pages.

Sara Bailey, a decorated amateur who competed around the world under her maiden name Sara Haghighat Joo and now holds the WBA light flyweight title, successfully defended that trinket with a lopsided decision over Cristina Navarro (6-3), a 35-year-old Spaniard who “earned” this assignment by winning a 6-round decision over an opponent with a 1-4-3 record. The judges scored the monotonous fight 99-91 across the board for Bailey who improved to 6-0 and then returned to the ring to assist her husband in Lucas Bahdi’s corner.

Also

Twenty-two-year-old super bantamweight Angel Barrientes, a Las Vegas-based Hawaii native, delivered the best performance of the night with a one-sided beatdown of Alexander Castellano whose corner mercifully stopped the contest after the seventh round as the ring doctor stood in a neutral corner chatting with the referee.

The gritty Castellano, who hails from Tonawanda, New York, brought an 11-1-2 record and hadn’t previously been stopped. A glutton for punishment, he appeared to suffer a broken orbital bone. Barrientes improved to 13-1 (8 KOs).

The show was marred by an excessive amount of fluffy gobbledygook by the TV talking heads which slowed down the action and made the promotion almost unwatchable.

Cartago, Costa Rica

Fighting in his hometown, super flyweight David Jimenez scored a lopsided 12-round decision over Nicaragua’s Keyvin Lara. The judges had it 120-108, 119-109, and 116-112.

Jimenez, now 17-1, came to the fore in July of 2022 when he upset Ricardo Sandoval in Los Angeles, winning a well-earned majority decision over a 20/1 favorite riding a 16-fight winning streak. That boosted him into a title fight with the formidable Artem Dalakian who saddled him with his lone defeat.

Jimenez’s victory over Lara was his fifth since that setback. It sets up the Costa Rican for another title fight, this time against Argentina’s Fernando Martinez who acquired the WBA 115-pound title in July with an upset of Kazuto Ioka in Japan. Lara, who unsuccessfully challenged Ioka for a belt in 2016, falls to 32-7-1.

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Price Conquers Jonas on an All-Female Card at Royal Albert Hall

Published

3 days ago

March 7, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Price-Conquers-Jonas-on-an-All-Female-Card-at-Royal-Albert-Hall

Ben Shalom’s BOXXER Promotions was at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall tonight with an all-female card topped by a welterweight unification fight between WBC/IBF belt-holder Natasha Jonas and WBA champion Lauren Price.

Liverpool’s Jonas, who turns 41 in June, has had a sterling career, but Father Time has caught up with her. The 30-year-old Price, an Olympic gold medalist, had faster hands, faster feet, and hit harder. The classy Jonas (16-3-1) acknowledged as much in her post-fight interview: “She beat me to the punch every time.”

The scores were 100-90, 98-92, and 98-93.

In advancing her record to 9-0 (2), Price built a strong case that she is the best fighter to come down the pike from Wales since Joe Calzaghe. As for her next bout, she hopes to fight the winner of the March 29 rematch in Las Vegas between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan. That match, with all of the meaningful welterweight hardware at stake, would be a hot ticket item if potted in Cardiff.

Semi-wind-up

Caroline Dubois staved off a late rally to successfully defend her WBC lightweight title with a majority decision over South Korea’s spunky Bo Mi Re Shin. The judges had it 98-92, 98-93, and 95-95. Although the 95-95 tally by the Korean judge was quite a stretch, Shin performed far better than the odds – Dubois was a consensus 35/1 favorite — portended.

Dubois, a 24-year-old Londoner trained by Shane McGuigan, is the sister of IBF heavyweight title-holder Daniel Dubois. Reportedly 36-3 as an amateur, she advanced her pro record to 11-0-1 (5). Heading in, Shin (18-3-3) had won nine of her previous 10 with the lone setback coming via split decision in a robust fight with Belgium’s Delfine Persoon in Belgium.

Other Bouts of Note

Kariss Artingstall returned to the ring after a 14-month absence and scored a unanimous decision over former amateur rival Raven Chapman. The scores were 98-91, 97-92, 96-93.

The prize for Artingstall, who happens to be Lauren Price’s partner, was the inaugural British female featherweight title and a potential rematch with Skye Nicolson who would relish the chance to avenge her last defeat, a loss by split decision to Attingstall in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics. Nicolson, who was part of tonight’s broadcast team, defends her title later this month in Sydney against Florida’s Tiara Brown.

It was the first 10-rounder for Artingstall (7-0). Chapman (9-2) had an uphill battle after Artingstall decked her in the second round with a straight left hand.

In a mild upset, Jasmina Zopotoczna, a UK-based Pole, won a split decision over Chloe Watson, adding Watson’s European flyweight title to her own regional trinket. One of the judges favored Watson 97-93, but each of his colleagues had it 96-95 for the Pole. Although there was no great furor, the verdict was unpopular.

Zapotoczna, who fought off her back foot, improved to 9-1. It was the first pro loss for Watson who is trained by Ricky Hatton.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 316: Art of the Deal in Boxing and More

Published

4 days ago

March 6, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-316-Art-of-the-Deal-in-Boxing-and-More

So, they want to save boxing?

A group of guys with recent ties to the sport of boxing and bags of money suddenly believe they can save a sport that is older than any other sport since the dawn of mankind.

Boxing is the oldest sport.

When cavemen roamed the planet, you can believe one tribe bet another tribe their guy could whip the other guy. Thus began the sport of boxing. There was no baseball, soccer or horse racing.

Even the invention of the wheel was still a few generations away when men were duking it out with other men for sport.

Throughout history mentions of one man fighting another man without arms are written in the Tales of Ulysses and other literary references.

Boxing will never die. Period.

Here is the reason why.

Boxing requires only two men in their underwear with no weapons and no requirement of classes in jujitsu, kickboxing, wrestling or advance training facilities. You can prepare in your backyard with one heavy bag and a pair of boxing gloves. It’s simple.

MMA, on the other hand, requires money.

Boxing is for the poor. Any kid can walk into a gym and begin training. When they become adults, then they start paying to use the gym.

Don’t let people fool you and tell you “boxing is dying.”

People have been saying those same words since John L. Sullivan in the late 1800s. You can look it up.

The phrase “boxing is dying,” is said by people who want you to pay them money to save it. Kind of sounds like the guy currently sitting in the White House who is going to save America by firing Americans from their jobs and allowing Russia to take over Ukraine.

Don’t believe these people.

Boxing does not need saving.

Why would Dana White, who has stated for decades that MMA is bigger than boxing, though no MMA fighter can equal the purses of a Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Tyson Fury, why is he involved in boxing?

There is big money to be made in boxing, especially with internet gambling sites being allowed all over the world. And boxing is popular worldwide. MMA is not.

More people know who Canelo is than UFC’s Alex Pereira.

I respect the UFC fighters. They put in hard work and battle injuries throughout their careers. But MMA is simply not as big as boxing. The purses of MMA fighters at the top level don’t come close to boxing’s top money earners.

Why did Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz and others quickly switch to boxing when called?

The money in boxing is much bigger.

Follow the money.

NYC

A rumble is planned for Times Square in New York City.

Vatos from Southern California are fighting dudes from Nevada and Brooklyn. Sounds like a script from the Gangs of New York.

Where is Leonardo DiCaprio when you need him?

Ryan “KingRy” Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) will meet Rollie Romero (16-2, 13 KOs) in a welterweight match set for May 2, on Times Square in mid-Manhattan. This is one of three marquee bouts planned to be streamed on DAZN.

Others matched will be Arnold Barboza (32-0, 11 KOs) versus super lightweight titlist Teofimo Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs), and Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) against Jose Carlos Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) in a welterweight contest.

This is the proposed match by The Ring magazine backed by Turki Alalshikh who, along with Golden Boy Promotions and Matchroom Boxing, is sponsoring this fight card.

It was also announced that Alalshikh, TKO Group Holdings, and Sela are forming a promotion company.

TKO owns UFC and WWE.

SoCal Fights

Southern California will be busy with boxing cards this weekend.

This Thursday, March 6, is Golden Boy Promotions with a boxing card featuring Manny Flores (19-1, 15 KOs) versus Jorge Leyva (18-3, 13 KOs) in a super bantamweight match at Fantasy Springs Casino. DAZN will stream the boxing card from Indio, California.

On Saturday, March 8, the Fox Theater in Pomona, California hosts a boxing card featuring super middleweights Ruben Cazales (10-0) vs Adam Diu Abdulhamid (18-16). Also, super featherweights Michael Bracamontes (10-2-1) meets Eugene Lagos (16-9-3) at the historic venue promoted by House of Pain Boxing.

On Saturday March 8, Elite Boxing hosts a boxing card at Salesian High in East Los Angeles featuring East L.A. native Merari Vivar (8-0) against Sarah Click (2-8-1) and several other fights.

On Saturday, March 8, an event hosted by House of Champions features top contenders Joet Gonzalez (26-4) vs Arnold Khegai (22-1-1) in a featherweight main event at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, Calif.

A Big All-Female Card in London

On Friday, March 7, the historic Royal Albert Hall in the Kensington borough of London will host an all-female card with two world title fights including a unification fight in the welterweight division.

Natasha Jonas (16-2-1) and Lauren Price (8-0) meet 10 rounds for the IBF, WBC, and WBA belts.

Jonas, 40, the current WBC and IBF titlist, recently defeated Ivana Habazin and before that edged past Mikaela Mayer in a win that could have gone the other way very easily. She will be facing Price, an Olympic gold medalist and current WBA and IBO titlist.

Price, 30, hails from Wales and has an aggressive pressure style that saw her win a battle between punchers with a third-round knockout of Colombia’s Bexcy Mateus this past December in Liverpool. Before that she defeated the always tough Jessica McCaskill.

In the co-main event, lightweights Caroline Dubois (10-0-1) and Bo Mi Re Shin (18-2-3) meet for the WBC world title.

Me Re Shin, 30, fights out of South Korea and has knockout power. She was one of only two fighters to stop Venezuela’s Ana Maria Lozano who has 38 pro fights. That says something. She lost a split decision to Delfine Persoon in Belgium. That really says something.

Dubois had two competitive fights, first, against Jessica Camara that ended in a technical draw due to a clash of heads. Before that she defeated Maira Moneo. Dubois has very good talent and is still young at 24. Is she ready for Mi Re Shin?

Times Square photo credit: JP Yim

Fights to watch:

Thurs., March 6: DAZN, Manny Flores (19-1) vs. Jorge Leyva (18-3)

Fri., March 7: free on DAZN, Lucas Bahdi (18-0) vs. Ryan James Racaza (15-0)

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