?If I have to die in the ring to win, that is what I will do. Is Algieri willing to do the same? He had better or he will not??
Newspaperman and author, inventor and musician, statesman and signatory to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1789, ?In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.?
Much has changed between 1789 and the present day. Death and taxes, unfortunately, aren?t among them.
But Ben Franklin was clever and played cards close to the vest. He knew that there were other certainties in this world, which is no reason to spoil a good aphorism by stacking the deck.
Another certainty, at least from our vantage point, is boxing. Like death and taxes, boxing is? in this world,? no matter how out of this world it can sometimes be. And again, like death and taxes, when it comes to the noble art, you can run but you can?t hide.
Ruslan Provodnikov (23-2, 16 KOs), who is defending his WBO junior welterweight title Saturday night at Brooklyn?s Barclays Center against undefeated Chris Algieri (19-0, 8 KOs), recently said, ?If I have to die in the ring to win, that is what I will do. Is Algieri willing to do the same? He had better or he will not defeat me.?
There is trash talk and there is trash talk and we?ve pretty much heard it all, but one senses that Provodnikov means what he says and says what he means. He doesn?t intend to die, not after completing the arduous journey from Siberia to ESPN to HBO. But raising the specter of death is an iffy proposition in a sport as perilous as boxing.
Algieri, hailing from Huntington, New York, is the hometown favorite. Huntington isn?t Shangri-La, but it?s safe to say that it?s more paradisaical than Siberia.
?I came from a small village in Russian called Beryozovo,? Provodnikov said. ?I had a very hard upbringing. I know suffering. I grew up in it. All we had to eat was what grew from the soil?anything that grew from the soil?and raw fish and moose. I still eat raw moose liver. It makes me strong.?
I?m big on things that grow from the ground and confess to having a taste for raw fish. After Provodnikov has his hand raised in victory, I intend to add raw moose liver to my culinary bucket list.
?The way I fight comes from inside of me,? said the Siberian Rocky. ?It?s my character and I?m probably never going to fight differently. People love me because of that. I am who I am in the ring and I just put everything in the ring. It?s who I am.?
No one in their right mind wants Provodnikov to fight differently. He may not be going at it when he?s fifty, but if there were every fan-friendly fighter, it?s Ruslan Provodnikov.
?Ruslan is a great fighter and a great champion,? said Algieri on a recent conference call. ?It?s a real honor to be in there with him. I have seen him fight before. I?m actually a fan of watching Ruslan fight. He?s a pressure fighter. He comes forward. He?s super tough, very durable. He?s a good strong puncher and he maintains his pressure throughout the bout. He moves his head when he needs to and crosses the line and he closes the distance very well. Those are the things that my team has been studying to work on. But, just based on past fights, there is a weakness with dealing with a jab and a boxer and movement, but really those are the things that we?ve been trying to work most on. But at the end of the day it?s a fight. Ruslan is going to press the action. I?m going to have to stand and fight at times. So we?ll be ready for that as well.?
Algieri is articulate. He?s also a good fighter.
?He?s a good boxer,? Ruslan?s trainer, Freddie Roach, said. ?He moves well. He has a good jab. He?s a solid boxer. But nobody?s perfect and we have a very good game plan. We will put pressure on him, cut off the ring, and we will do the best we can to get him out of there. I think every fight should end in a knockout. We don?t go looking for a knockout. We?re going to go out there and win every round one at a time.?
The one knock on Algieri is his quality of opposition. Provodnikov is not only the reigning champion. He?s also a dervish of destruction.
?I?ve fought a couple of guys who were pressure fighters and big punchers,? Algieri continued. ?My last opponent Emanuel Taylor was a very, very well-known knockout puncher. He had one-punch power. He also threw a lot of very tight short punches. I fought a fighter, a Puerto Rican fighter, Jose Peralta, who is a shorter, stockier pressure aggressive guy as well. So, I feel like I?ve dealt with similar, but not quite like Ruslan-type fighters in the past.?
?This is a boxing match. It?s not a barroom brawl. And as much as Ruslan is a come forward and pressure fighter, it takes a certain amount of skills. So it?s not just a fight. This is a boxing match. And we?re both going to go out there with our strategies. And, you know, a big part of mine is going to be trying to be a master boxer.?
Master boxer or not, Algieri is going to be under the gun, and Provodnikov?s finger will be on the trigger.
?It?s no secret what my plan is,? Provodnikov said. ?Of course I?m going to pressure. We know what he?s going to do. I mean they all try to box me and they all try to move and jab. But I?m going to follow my plan. I can break him down from the distance, from up close, and from anywhere. I do not like fighting boxers who do not engage, like Algieri, but I am used to it. I will chase him and hunt him down. I am a hunter when I am in the ring.?
