The ring in the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York, will have a diamond set in it on Saturday night when Lucas Matthysse and Ruslan Provodnikov reveal what beauty can be wrought from pressure and heat.
There is more to creating a diamond than pressure and heat. Time also plays a role; and time, as something exhaustible, is a player in Matthysse-Provodnikov as well. It is impossible to imagine these men leaving the ring Saturday unchanged by the other?s mischief, nearly as difficult to imagine their careers maintaining whatever trajectory caused their collision. And does it not feel as if, in facing each other, Matthysse and Provodnikov, are meeting their destiny, that beast in the jungle whose pursuit, however unforeseen, would inevitably overtake them?
Not that either man would consider escaping this beast. Consider how each found his way to Verona, and what indictments of current trends their paths expose. Matthysse, 36-3 (34), signed with advisor Al Haymon to secure a fight with fellow Haymon client, Danny Garcia. Denied a rematch with Garcia, Matthysse severed ties with the most influential powerbroker in boxing rather than pay Haymon to not cooperate. Then there is Provodnikov, who shrugged off losing his title to Chris Algieri as an inconsequential penalty of taking a fight that failed to satisfy his bloodlust. Tellingly, the only hitch in the negotiations of a fight resulted from Haymon?who has no involvement in the card?denying the fight its preferred venue. No, there is little of the current business of boxing about Matthysse-Provodnikov besides it being packaged to a little casino miles from any major city.
It is easy to imagine the negotiations for Saturday?s fight consisting of little more than each fighter?s respective promoter asking him this: ?There are some who assert that that man is the most destructive in the division. Will you let that stand??
And why might Matthysse not let such a notion stand? The answer begins, as it does with Provodnikov, with his constitution and his bank account. But is there more at play? Perhaps Matthysse, Trelew, Argentina, is still smarting from his loss to Garcia, and figures what better way to reestablish his reputation than by destroying a fighter who, for all his celebrated savagery, could not cut down a one-eyed nutritionist. A reputation for ferocity earned primarily in defeat is unlikely to intimidate Matthysse, who, despite his moments of vulnerability, sees only one man as having beaten him?and unconvincingly at that.
No, Matthysse, 32, is unlikely to make of the uncompromising volition awaiting him anything more than a stubborn yet inevitable victim, one all the more satisfying for its tenacity. If anticipation among aficionados is any indicator of competition, however, such an interpretation of Provodnikov, 24-3 (17), is misguided. The slugger from Beryozovo, Russia, may not be a world class fighter, but neither is John Molina, a fighter as clumsy and awkward as a junior high dance, who nevertheless managed to drop Matthysse twice. The thinking is that, if Molina can hurt Matthysse, so too can Provodnikov, whose track record of hurting opponents is flawless. There is also the consideration that, of the two, Matthysse seems more likely to whistle in the dark, more likely to plan for escape when the beast in the jungle approaches. There may be little to this perceived psychical fragility, but Matthysse also seems more physically fragile than ever before. And fragility will not escape Provodnikov, who is emboldened by tremors in resolve.
Indeed, if there is one thing Provodnikov does, it is test a fighter?s resolve?and always against the inexhaustible flames of his own. Matthysse, whatever his confidence is unlikely to want to fight as badly as Provodnikov because fighting is not merely Provodnikov?s best strategy?it is his only one. But while his enthusiasm seldom wanes, Provodnikov, 31, can be woefully one dimensional at times, and one dimension, however formidable, will not down Matthysse. Trainer Marvin Somodio, who stood in for Freddie Roach the night Provodnikov thrashed Mike Alvarado, must remind Provodnikov that the right eye is not the only vulnerable target on a man.
Somodio will also have to steel Provodnikov when the ?Siberian Rocky? first experiences the taste of power enough to stop him. Because that moment is coming; whether it infects Provodnikov, whether it makes him take a backward step for reasons other than redoubling momentum will be telling. Coming too, is the moment when Provodnikov sinks a left hook into Matthysse that reminds ?La Maquina? of his diminished invincibility. And then there is the moment when both men abandon caution completely, be it in earnest, desperation, even mutual agreement; when each man meets his beast in the jungle, and a spectacle of violence qua violence unfolds.
