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VERONA, N.Y. (AP) — Lucas Matthysse won a majority decision against Ruslan Provodnikov in a 12-round super lightweight bout Saturday night.
Matthysse landed the majority of the punches in the first round and opening a cut near Provodnikov's left eye early in the second.
Provodnikov (24-3) put Matthysse on the ropes late in the third round and landed two hard right hook-left hook combos in the fourth before Matthysse (37-3) regained control in the fifth. He continued to use his three-inch reach advantage to keep Provodnikov at bay, giving him room to dodge the Russian's powerful left hook.
Provodnikov (24-3) put Matthysse on the ropes late in the third round and landed two hard right hook-left hook combos in the fourth before Matthysse (37-3) regained control in the fifth. He continued to use his three-inch reach advantage to keep Provodnikov at bay, giving him room to dodge the Russian's powerful left hook.
Provodnikov landed several punches in the later rounds but couldn't knock down his Argentine opponent down, although he did stagger Matthysse in the 11th.
"He did, he hurt me," Matthysse said through a translator. "But I was able to withstand the onslaught. He's a very tough fighter. He's very strong. He just keeps coming forward."
Don Ackerman scored the fight as a draw 114-114, but Glenn Feldman and John McKaie both scored it 115-113 in favor of Matthysse.
"To me, he was better today," Provodnikov said through a translator. "He was the better man in the ring and, you know, it was a close fight but he won and I hope everybody enjoyed it."
The night's undercard was quickly decided when Patrick Teixeira (25-0, 21 KOs) won with a second-round knockout of Patrick Allotey (30-2) in their middleweight bout.
The sellout crowd then had to wait more than an hour for the main event, watching the TV feed of Terence Crawford beating Thomas Dulorme for the vacant WBO junior welterweight title in Austin, Texas.
WBO president Paco Valcárcel tweeted he would like to see Crawford defend his title against Matthysse, but the Argentinian had his sights set higher.
"For right now I just want to rest," Matthysse said. "I got my daughter, my family waiting for me back home. I want to rest. I want to go back there and see them so much and let's see what happens with (Manny) Pacquiao and (Floyd) Mayweather."
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