Society of North American Sports Historians & Researchers: October 20, 2013 – Russlan Provodnikov has come a long way in 2013. At the beginning of the year, he was an obscure Russian junior-welterweight, just barely making the bottom of the 140-pound Top 10, with one loss on his ledger. Then he was tapped to move up in weight to challenge WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley. Bradley, coming off his disputed decision win over Manny Pacquiao, was a wide favorite. But Provodnikov floored Bradley twice in a life-and-death battle that ended with Ruslan on the short end of the decision.
Obscure no more, Provodnikov dropped back to junior-welter. On Saturday, he challenged for Mike Alvarado?s WBO title in that division, and won when Alvarado surrendered on his stool after the end of the 10th round. Clearly, the Russian?s decision to go back to 140 lb paid off handsomely.
This was a pick-em fight. Going in, Alvarado was riding the momentum of a decision victory over Brandon Rios, who had stopped Mike in a previous encounter. Alvarado made the necessary adjustments in the rematch, and was able to defuse Rio?s bombs. On Saturday, the question was whether or not Alvarado?s boxing skills could offset Provodnikov?s power.
For the first half of the fight, Alvarado outboxed the Russian ? but just barely. Then, in the eighth, Provodnikov floored his foe with a body shot. When Alvarado rose, Provodnikov went after the body again, and scored a second knockdown. But just when it looked as though Alvarado was done for, he came roaring back with an attack of his own, and made it out of the round.
That was Mike?s last hurrah, though. Determined not to let Alvarado slip through his fingers the way Bradley did, Ruslan stepped up his aggression, and Alvarado became less and less able to fend him off, although he did not go down again. After the bell ended Round 10, Alvarado indicated that he could not continue, giving Provodnikov the win via TKO.
Is Alvarado a quitter? No. If he knew in his own heart and mind that he had given everything he had, and had nothing left, then there?s no shame in his decision to stay on his stool. After all, he could have done so at the end of the eighth, but he chose to go on for two more punishing rounds.
Alvarado will live to fight another day. And who knows? If he was able to come up with a game plan to avenge his defeat at the hands of Rios, he could do the same in a rematch with Provodnikov.
However, Provodnikov is a harder nut to crack than Rios. Provodnikov is looking like a smaller version of middleweight terror Gennady Golovkin. Even though Provodnikov?s punching power is not in the same league as Golovkin?s (whose is?), he is still a hard hitter, as Bradley and Alvarado can attest.
And as 2013 draws to a close, Ruslan Provodnikov has won a major title belt and made himself a significant player in both the junior-welterweight and welterweight divisions. Can?t ask for better progress than that.
