Some 25 miles East of Syracuse, New York sits the Turning Stone Casino, on the way there from Syracuse you’ll pass by the International Boxing Hall of Fame right off the I-90 exit, blink and you may miss the HOF, yes it’s that easy to miss. While the HOF may be easy to miss, what was not to be missed was the fight that was taking place inside the Turning Stone event center.
This Saturday night from the small casino two of boxing most exciting fighters entered the ring to face one another. Many were calling this fight a boxing fans dream, mentioning the bout to match ups such as Barrera v. Morales, Gatti v. Ward and Castillo v. Corrales.
These two fighter facing one another could be that good.
In front of a sold out crowd, some 5000 boxing fans, Lucas Matthysse battled Ruslan Provodnikov to a split decision win. A fight in which both men stood their ground, taking 
thunderous headshots and unrelenting body attacks for 36 minutes. In that time, both would be hurt, Provodnikov would suffer a nasty cut above his left eye early in the fight from a head butt yet continued to charge forward against the dangerous Argentinean. It was a fight that fans got their monies worth. While no knockdowns were recorded, both men had their moments and the fans savored the will of both these men to the very end.
Was it the fight of the year? No, while it was an entertaining fight, nothing stands out as being other than a very good and exciting fight but not quite in the FOY realm. That doesn’t mean it deserves anything but kudos. Goldenboy put on a worthy main event card that was aired on HBO.
However even with HBO winning the head to head with Showtime and their Chavez Jr. fight, the real buzz to me was Chavez Jr. quitting on his stool. All week social media was pointing out how bad ticket sales were and that they were practically giving away tickets to the fight, boxing fans tuned in, with hopes that Chavez Jr. would be dominated like he was against Sergio Martinez a few years ago. They were not disappointed, as going into the tenth, Chavez Jr. claimed his leg hurt and asked that the fight be stopped.
Ruslan had a cut that could have been stopped at any time due to the severity of the cut, hell, he could have asked the fight to be stopped once it happened in the 2nd that could have made the contest a no contest. It worked for Mikey Garcia when he got a busted nose against Salido. Yet, Provodnikov would never allow such a cop out. Broken nose or an injured leg would not allow the Siberian Rocky such ending. It’s simply not is his DNA to quit.
Matthysse and Provodnikov deserved their paychecks and then some, while fighters like Mike Alvarado, Mikey Garcia and Chavez Jr. are quitting on their stools and getting paid well to do it, guys like Matthysse and Provodnikov are finding ways to keep fighting, even when they know they’ve been beaten.
They’re the reason boxing fans love the sport. They throw caution to the wind, lay it all on the line and in the end, they get to submit a blood filled urine test.
They apologize to their teams and fans for not winning, for disappointing them and promise to come back better next time. What they don’t do it try and convince any who will listen that they felt they were winning up until their leg gave out. This past weekend for the fans who were in attendance and the ones who saw it on T.V. , it was a fight that boxing needed. One to get fans excited to see these two again and for boxing in general. They both earned the fans admiration and respect once again and I like many others I know will gladly pay our hard earned money to see them fight 10 times over.
I can’t say the same for the other fighters or even for the fight coming up in less than 2 weeks.