Jim Lampley's Myth of Provodnikov's Body Attack

[jdp28tx]

Jim Lampley's imaginary assumptions, the myth of Prov's body attack during the Matthysse fight. Lampley commended Prov for saying it brought him back into the fight. HBO also claimed Lucas had no body attack and he was just head hunting.

Now Prov's past fights bring us to the truth regarding this myth. Prov has never had a body attack and from his ESPN2 days he was criticized by Teddy Atlas for being a head hunter. Provo's fight against Bradley HBO also criticized him for head hunting and going strictly to Bradley's head during the whole fight and also said if Provo had gone to the body he would of won the fight. As for Bradley he went to Provo's body and hurt him on a few occasions. His loss to Algieri, again HBO criticized him for having no body attack and just looking to land head shots all night. Many critics also noted if Provo had only gone to Algieri's body it would of changed the outcome of the fight.

As for the Matthysse fight. Once again punch stats show Provo only landed 35 compared to 24 for Lucas. That is not much of a difference and it shows that Provo's apparent incredible body attack that HBO credited with getting him back into the fight amounts to only a paltry 3 avg landed body punches per rd.

The sad thing is Provo's type of offense would make him a great body puncher, and when he does go to the body it looks good, but so far he refuses to deviate from his head hunter pattern.

[rambov]

Hey this is good. I thought about this as I was watching the fight.

[Da Machine]

Lampley and Lederman that night have forever left doubt in enough fans minds in who won that it is always going to be an annoyance. Matthysse killed him.

[Da Machine]

They honestly ruined a master piece of a fight by my favorite fighter by turning an 8-4 or 9-3 type of fight into asemi controversy. Can't stand HBO. Will be great when Haymon belittles them down to an after thought.

[jdp28tx]

Ring magazine has a pretty good article on how journalists, HBO, and the judges saw the fight and the author admitted that sentiment probably played a role, its called "The Travelin Man returns to Verona", the author said this and not as it being a negative thing either. He went into detail of how he and the judges, and HBO deservedly almost had Prov winning the fight. It just showed how favoritism played in it all. I wrote this in response:



More bad rationalizing in order to justify giving Provo more rounds than he legitimately earned and deserved thus making the fight closer than it actually was. This assessment is also how the judges along with Jim Lampley's perspective (which was one-sided & horrendously reeking of favoritism) came up with Provo almost winning the fight and by this I mean giving him rounds based on sentiment, which unsurprisingly is not a criteria allowed in judging, rather than merit.

You try and show your justification of how you and the judges came up with these scorecards by using the facts of the fight. You do use the evidence of punchstat #'s to back up your argument, but you are purposely leaving out a # of other facts that undermine your argument. You note power punches as your main reason to give Provo a lot of the rounds. However, power punches alone are not enough to justify giving Provo the rounds you mentioned. First, some of those power punches u mentioned were not very effective, only in the last 2 rounds I would argue they were effective. The # of Provo's power punches were not that many or not much more than the # Lucas landed. Here are the #'s in rounds five (20-17), eight (12-5), nine (12-4) and 12 (11-5). Finally, you leave out the sheer # of jabs Lucas was landing in many of the rounds noted that have Provo out landing Lucas in power punches. Not only was Lucas surely dictating the pace of those rounds and controlling the majority of each of those rounds, Provo's output was limited to very short bursts mostly at the end of the rounds. His activity in 5,8.9, in which Lampley went wild about was limited to no more than 15 seconds. Now you surely cannot give a fighter a rd for 15 seconds of work at the end of the rd when the opponent is out throwing, out landing in total punches, and controlling the large majority of the rd. Lucas did indeed do all of the above. The exceptions were rounds 4,11,12.

I think when you look at the totality of rounds 3,5,8,9 (I am including round 3 because Lampley and Lederman gave it to Provo) Lucas threw more punches, landed more, controlled the rd, and did so with his jab which he landed over and over. Now how can we say as George Foreman puts it that the jab is the most important punch in boxing and then give Matthysse 0 credit for landing so many and using the jab (along with movement) to virtually control Provo for the entire fight?

I have to agree that you, HBO especially Lampley and the judges gave Provo all of those rounds unjustifiably making the fight very close based on sentiment rather than using the the judging criteria rules. First, effective aggression which Provo remarkably failed at, and Lucas excelled in. Second, defense which looking at Provo's face he spectacularly failed at and Lucas passed with flying colors. Third clean punching which again look at Provo's face and u will see Lucas easily won this point of contention and the punchstats back up this claim.. And finally ring generalship which Lucas mastered using his feet and jab which he busted Provo in the face with time and time again.

Now I love Provo, I have been watching him since the beginning of his ESPN2 days and I love his heart and never say die attitude, but I set those feelings aside when scoring his fights. I suggest you, Lampley, Lederman, and these awful judges do the same the next time Provo fights.

[Bolopunch68]

That was an entertaining fight. Provo was never a body puncher, I wish Marvin and Freddie will instill that arsenal into his head. He have a very nice left hook and his right hand cross always missed simply because he have short arms. With his outstanding chin, power on both hands I hope he'll learn how to attack the body so that his right hook will land.

As for Mathysse, I never seen clinch that much during a fight. He seems dis interested when he couldn't put Provo down and out, and i saw him got hurt twice with a left hook to the head.

I like them both as a warrior, what an entertaining fight that was. I hope I see their rematch. It was a close decision though, so it has to be a rematch.

[cameltoe]

Good thread. I had the fight 9-3 and cannot for the life of me understand why the judges and HBO thought it was a close fight.

Boxnation who screened the fight in the UK had Lucas winning easily and were also shocked by the official scores.

[cameltoe]

That was an entertaining fight. Provo was never a body puncher, I wish Marvin and Freddie will instill that arsenal into his head. He have a very nice left hook and his right hand cross always missed simply because he have short arms. With his outstanding chin, power on both hands I hope he'll learn how to attack the body so that his right hook will land.

As for Mathysse, I never seen clinch that much during a fight. He seems dis interested when he couldn't put Provo down and out, and i saw him got hurt twice with a left hook to the head.

I like them both as a warrior, what an entertaining fight that was. I hope I see their rematch. It was a close decision though, so it has to be a rematch.

I wish Freddie would teach his fighters how to avoid a straight right hand. This is pretty basic, yet all his fighters seem to get hit flush with right hands, even lead rights, like they don't even expect them.

[Mike Haynes]

If Provo wasn't cut early and looked like he got jumped and kicked repeatedly in the face....they might have given him a split decision win....116-112 Matthyse.

[hinode]

people needs to understand what ring generalship is
one big punch is not enough to win a round
Lucas owned that fight