Ruslan Providnikov Punishes Mike Alvarado
PROVODNIKOV NOT TO BE DENIED!
San Francisco, CA– I will preface each article this evening, on both the boxing card on HBO and the UFC 166 presentation, it was indeed a great night to be a fight fan. In the HBO main event, “Mr. Hard Luck” Ruslan Provodnikov, denied what looked like a deserved win against WBO 147 lb. champion Tim Bradley last time out, silenced a pro-Mike Alvarado audience in the now former WBO 140 lb. king’s hometown midway through the fight.
AGGRESSION & CLEAN PUNCHING
Opening strong, Ruslan won the opener with aggression, effective at that, and punches that made a statement as he was the puncher and Alvarado found that out early. Going into a boxing mode, Mike hoped he could stifle the always coming forward Russian.
ALVARADO HAS “HUGE STONES”
With things relatively close, the ninth round produced fireworks that saw “Ruslan the Russian” drop Mike Alvarado twice. Landing left hooks, preceded by left jabs, coupled with crunching right hands, you knew it was only a matter of time before Mr. Alvarado would succumb.
“BRAVE CORNER” SENT MIKE OUT HURT!
Although it would be a “tough” call to make, I was hoping the corner would stop the fight after nine. They decided to give Alvarado, who had been out on his feet more often than on them, one more round in which he got brutalized. Surviving the three minutes of round ten, Alvarado’s brave corner mercifully stopped the fight. Ruslan, the WBO 140 lb., titleholder is now 23-2, 16 KOs with the TKO 10. Alvarado, a warrior (34-2, 23 KOs) was just second to the Russian on this night and any other.
JUAN DIAZ NOT LOOKING SO GOOD
Facing a less than HBO-class fighter, meaning a guy in Juan Santiago (who lost five of his last six against no-names, former lightweight (135 lb.) king Juan Diaz won a ten round decision over Juan Santiago (now 14-11-1, 8 KOs)
DIAZ SHOULD STICK TO TRUCKING BIZNESS!
A successful Houston businessman, Diaz (38-4, 19 KOs) should think hard about hanging them up with three straight wins, one being a KO of Pipino Cuevas Jr, son of the man who lost the WBA title to Tommy Hearns in 1980for he certainly isn’t going to be champion again and he admittedly has got all the money he needs.
FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE!
Not platinum recording artist Peter Frampton, more like the UK’s Carl Frampton, a good looking bantamweight (118) with potential who took out a game but overwhelmed Jeremy Parodi (35-2-1, 9 KOs) of France with a “body shot” KO in round six. Frampton is 17-0 with 12 early showers!
STEIGLITZ DIDN’T SCARE ANYBODY WITH WIN
Another Russian, WBO 168 lb. guy Robert Stieglitz (46-3, 26 KOs) looked pedestrian in turning back once beaten Isaac Ekpo (22-2, 16 KOs) of Nigeria and Ghana. Scores were 119-109 & 118-110 twice. 11-1 in WBO title fights, Stieglitz’s lone title loss was to Arthir Abraham , which he avenged. A champion since 2009, Stieglitz needs to step up his level of competition.
Pedro Fernandez