ONE DIMENSIONAL RUSLAN EXPOSED SOMEWHAT
Rocky Losing to Bradley
San Francisco, CA– For the second week in a row, one of the “thought to be” best boxers in the world was dethroned as Ruslan Provodnikov dropped a split decision and the WBO 140 lb. trinket to upstart Chris Algieri. Now while we must give props to Long Island’s Algieri, unbeaten now in 20 contests with 8 KOs, but truth be told were we giving Provodnikov (23-3, 16 KOs) too much credit?
CLAIM TO FAME A LOSS TO BRADLEY
I mean outside of losing to Tim Bradley and besting a weight drained Mike Alvarado, what has Ruslan done that enamored him with both boxing fans and the media. Answer? Nothing! Whomever was doing the public relations for Provodnikov needs some credit here because when you look at his resume it is full of guys like the 37-18 DeMarcus Corley , that and he lost to Mauricio Herrera.
TWO LOCAL JUDGES WENT LOCAL
So how did Ruslan make it to the fringe area of the “pound for pound” list? That is really the story as whether or not you agree with the split decision (114-112, 114-112 for Algieri, 117-109 Ruslan) or not, Chris Algieri is not the next “Sugar Ray” Leonard and Ruslan is NOT the next Roberto Duran. Nor is he the second coming of Gennady Golovkin.
RUSLAN HAS HIT HIS ZENITH
As for going “back to the drawing board” for Provodnikov, at 30 I don’t think if he is a tiger that can change stripes. His throwing himself into the fray by giving and taking punishment, Provodnikov is just not as good as us pundits had claimed. He’s a somewhat entertaining “face” fighter in that he leads with his mug sans finesse. As for Chris Algieri and his ability, punching is not one of them as he has but 8 whacks in 20 scraps.
Pedro Fernandez