Team Postol Warn Matthysse: 'Revenge for Provodnikov'

By Edward Chaykovsky

For manager Vadim Kornilov, Saturday night is personal.

In April of this year in Verona, New York - Kornilov's fighter Ruslan 'Siberian Rocky' Provodnikov faced Lucas "La Máquina" Matthysse (37-3, 34 KOs) in a very anticipated fight. It lived up to the hype with fireworks and big punches flying from both fighters. After twelve rounds, Provodnikov lost a twelve round majority decision.

Provodnikov's entire team was upset. They felt Matthysse did everything possible to avoid the high drama that he promised everyone he would bring and instead stuck to game plan of boxing from a distance.

This weekend at the StubHub Center in Carson, another of Kornilov's fighters - Viktor "The Iceman" Postol (27-0, 11 KOs) - will take on Matthysse in an HBO televised fight for the vacant WBC junior welterweight title.

While many are expecting Postol to be the boxer, Kornilov says his fighter is ready to mix it up and wants to touch Matthysse on the chin as much as possible to gain a certain measure of payback for what happened to Provodnikov.

"This is a revenge fight for our team after Lucas defeated Ruslan Provodnikov earlier this year. We know he can brawl with Postol, and we will be ready for that. I think our team can be victorious because we will be prepared for whatever he has in the ring," Kornilov said.
 
"He was afraid to brawl Provodnikov, and we are going to force him to brawl on Saturday night."