By Keith Idec

Lucas Matthysse has been down in two of his past three fights.

Danny Garcia dropped the Argentine knockout artist in the 11th round of their September 2013 fight in Las Vegas, which Garcia won by unanimous decision. In his next fight, John Molina floored Matthysse twice, in the second and fifth rounds, before Matthysse came back to win their 2014 Boxing Writers Association of America “Fight of the Year” by 11th-round knockout nearly a year ago in Carson, Calif.

Matthysse (36-3, 34 KOs, 1 NC) is confident Ruslan Provodnikov (24-3, 17 KOs) won’t have similar success against him Saturday night in Verona, N.Y., where they’ll clash in a highly anticipated, 12-round junior welterweight fight that’ll headline HBO’s split-site doubleheader from Turning Stone Resort Casino (9:45 p.m. ET/6:45 p.m. PT).

“I’m not going to get dropped with Ruslan,” Matthysse, 32, said through a translator on a recent conference call. “So you don’t have to worry about that. I’m not going to get dropped. But when Molina dropped me [in the fifth round], you know, the punch was a little bit behind my head. I’m not making excuses, but I’m not going to get dropped. I’m not going to get dropped with Ruslan and that’s not what I’m thinking about.”

The 31-year-old Provodnikov has lost two of his past four fights, but he has never been knocked down during his 27-fight, eight-year pro career. Matthysse has knocked out 87 percent of his professional opponents.

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.