Known as the "Siberian Rocky," Ruslan Provodnikov (23-2, 16KO’s) never let up on former light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23KO’s) on Saturday night in Broomfield, Colorado, just north of Alvarado’s home town, Denver, Colorado.
Televised by HBO and promoted by Top Rank, this was Provodnikov’s second chance at a WBO world title after losing to a close but brutal fight back in March of this year to Timothy Bradley (31-0, 12KO’s). In that fight, he put Bradley on the canvas in the twelfth round, sent him home with a major concussion, but was not able to take him out in the fight.
This time around, he was on his way to knocking out the tough Alvarado, but the fight was stopped by Alvarado’s corner just before the eleventh round started.
Provodnikov, who hails all the way from Beryozovo, Russia, started the first round by pressing the action against the former champion Alvarado and quickly started connecting with his left jab and following it up with big right hands. Although Alvarado was able to land a nice uppercut in this round, the busier Provodnikov clearly landed the most punches. This round was just a preview of what Provodnikov had in store for Alvarado the rest of the fight.
Having trained for this fight with famed trainer Freddie Roach, he followed their game plan, even though Roach was on the other side of the world training eight time world champion Manny Pacquiao (54-5, 38KO’s). “I knew that I had to win it for Freddie," Provodnikov said. "Not having him here, I miss him, but we did his game plan exactly."
This was the first defense of the WBO light welterweight title for Alvarado after winning his rematch fight against Brandon Rios (31-1, 23KO’s) also in March of this year. Rios is now in training for his super match with Manny Pacquiao in Macao, China at the end of the year.
In the second and third round, Alvarado got on his bicycle and started boxing and was able to land good body punches and land punches with his right hand as Provodnikov continued to stalk him around the ring. On occasion, Alvarado would switch to southpaw in an attempt to confuse Provodnikov, but it appeared to not have much effect as Provodnikov continued his pursuit.
The day before the fight at the weigh-in, Alvarado had two hours to knock off one pound to make the weight limit. He returned from his workouts after his second attempt weighing 139.8 pounds. Whether this had any effect on him during the fight is unknown and Alvarado made no mention of it.
At the beginning of the fourth round, Alvarado came out dancing again and he was able to land a solid right hand on the Siberian Rocky. Alvarado continued to switch to southpaw in this round as they went toe to toe until the end of the round. The same continued in the fifth round, but this time Provodnikov began to press again as Alvarado’s right eye began to swell. Provodnikov kept up his attack in this round as well and he didn’t appear to be slowing down.
In the sixth round, both fighters were landing heavy punches as Provodnikov continued his march forward. In this round, Alvarado was dancing again but this time he was able to land some heavy punches, but nothing seemed to hurt Provodnikov. Alvarado switched his stance at the end of the round again and appeared to have won this round. The fight was even at the halfway point according to ring side commentators.
Before the seventh round, Provodnikov’ corner was heard telling him to land double left hooks. As the fight continued, Provodnikov began landing with his left hand as Alvarado’s right eye was beginning to get worse for the wear.
The most exciting part of the fight happened in the eighth round as Provodnikov pounded the tough Alvarado to the canvas with a multitude of punches as he was against the ropes. Just as the exhausted Alvarado went down, the referee started counting quickly, and Alvarado barely made the count. The fight continued and the crowd went crazy as Provodnikov went after Alvarez and then knocked him down again with a barrage of punches on the other side of the ring. After the count, the tough Alvarado was able to survive the round and even land a few punches at the end of the round.
In the ninth round, Provodnikov began to walk down Alvarado as he continued the onslaught by snapping Alvarado’s head back with heavy left hooks. He continued to force the fight as Alvarado tried his best to block as many punches as he could. Much of the same continued in the tenth round as Alvarado danced his way around defensively as Provodnikov continued to land numerous combinations as he pounded Alvarado all over the ring.
After the beating that Alvarado took in the tenth round, he actually went toward the wrong corner and needed to be assisted by the referee to go to the correct corner. The tough Alvarado had given his all, but Provodnikov was able to cut off the ring all night. Just before the beginning of the eleventh round, Alvarado’s corner called off the fight and Provodnikov was announced as the new WBO Light Welterweight Champion.
After the fight, Provodnikov was quoted as saying "If you want to be a world champion, you have to risk it — go and fight the best, go to his hometown."
Undercard: Juan Diaz (38-4, 19KO’s) v. Juan Santiago (14-11, 8KO’s)
In the third fight of his comeback journey, former unified WBA, WBO, and IBF lightweight champion Juan Diaz came out in the first round and landed a three punch uppercut on the taller Santiago and his mouthpiece came flying out. The game Santiago was able to withstand numerous left hooks and combinations by Diaz in the next several rounds and for some reason, he decided to stand in between rounds.
In the fourth round, Santiago, who had a 5 ½ inch reach, was not able to use it to his advantage on the former champion who stalked him around the ring. In the fifth round, Diaz began to go to the body and landed a triple body shot on Santiago, to the delight of the crowd. After the round ended, the tough Santiago from Denver, Colorado finally decided to take a seat when he returned to his corner.
This was the third fight for Diaz after almost a three year layoff from the ring after losing a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7, 40KO’s) for the WBO lightweight and WBA super lightweight title in July of 2010. He took the time off to attend law school and eventually starting up a successful trucking company. But the lure of regaining another world title and after teaming up with Top Rank, Diaz has decided to go for another title shot.
The mouthpiece of Santiago came out again in the sixth round after Diaz landed a solid right hand as he continued his onslaught. During this round, Diaz landed three solid right hands as Santiago’s right eye began to swell. In the seventh, it appeared that Diaz took the round off, although he continued to press Santiago, whose right eye was starting to close.
The battered Santiago came out in the eighth round with a rejuvenation of stamina, and momentarily landed several combinations on Diaz as he was against the ropes. At this point in the fight, Diaz appeared to be going through the paces and he was picking his shots. This was the best round for Santiago but Diaz was clearly way ahead on all the cards.
In the ninth, Diaz started to land his patented body shots that we were accustomed to seeing early in his career. He also duplicated the first round by landing a triple uppercut and once again, Santiago’s mouthpiece came out. The tough Santiago made it through the tenth and final round and Diaz went on to win by unanimous decision.
Diaz is scheduled to return to the ring in January or February of next year as he attempts to attain another world title shot.
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