Ruslan Provodnikov…feared man at Junior Welterweight

After winning the WBO Junior Welterweight Championship by stopping heralded tough guy and incumbent title holder “Mile High” Mike Alvarado in the reigning champ’s hometown of Denver, Colorado, on October 19th of last year, most fight fans would have guessed that big fight opportunities would be easily attainable for undefeated Russian native Ruslan Provodnikov in 2014.

With sledgehammers for fists and an iron chin to match, the irresistible force at 140 pounds always displays violent drama in the ring whenever he graces the light blue canvas…the kind that brings enthusiasm to arenas and excites fight fans around the world.

The 30 year old champ represents the kind of warrior that most avid boxing enthusiasts are willing to support.

So with a fan friendly style and a piece of coveted hardware around his waist, why is the HBO featured title holder still searching for a suitable challenger?

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Floyd Mayweather: He’s not a super-hero

From the fighters mentioned as next opponents, the only boxer that Floyd Mayweather Jr. should face would be Manny Pacquiao (assuming he doesn’t renew his contract with Bob Arum’s Top Rank).

Floyd should not hold the sole responsibility for the Pacquiao super-bout not happening, because (as the old adage goes), “it takes two to tango”, as some of the heavily-publicised demands from Manny’s team from previous attempts to negotiate the fight seemed strange or unreasonable – limited blood testing, 50:50 split of the pot; HBO’s involvement etc.

I also don’t believe that Floyd’s legacy will be tarnished if he doesn’t fight Manny, because it’s not uncommon for some of the biggest stars in boxing not to fight each other, but this has not affected their legacies in any way. For example: Roy Jones Jr. didn’t fight Gerald McClellan, Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn, Steve Collins, Dariusz Michalczewski or Julian Jackson.

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On the Mayweather legacy

Mayweather’s legacy has already been cemented. He is the only one closest to perfecting the sweet science. His defense is almost impenetrable. And he is graceful in the ring. And contrary to casual boxing fans’ claims , Mayweather is not like Guillermo Regondeaux who runs around the ring from his opponent. In fact in his fight against Canelo Alvarez many were surprised that he was the one who attacked Alvarez as early as the first round.

Mayweather has developed the shoulder roll defense not only to elude punches but to give him greater opportunity at offense. “Roll the left, cock the right. ” And Mayweather is not a soft puncher either. The only chance a regular fighter could possibly win is to get closer in which it is not difficult because Mayweather allows it. But as soon as you get hit by that ” cocked right hand” the game will change. You will be reduced to standing in front of him and trying to box him in which you don’t have a chance.

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Offense wins games but Defense Wins Championships!

The old saying ‘offense wins games and defense wins championships’ sure applied to America’s Super Bowl this year. The underdog Seattle team shutdown the favorite Denver team and their Quarterback Peyton Manning to secure the win! Before the game the Denver team was a 4 to 1, favorite with most believing that they would dominate and easily walk away with the Championship.

Parallels to this idiom exist in boxing, for example as a young fighter works his way up the boxing totem pole, it is quite common for him to have a lot of KO’s putting on an offensive show, neglecting defense providing entertainment value for the fans. As the fighter moves from prospect to fringe contender protecting that status becomes a priority because of the risk involved and the paychecks earned, so fighting with more defense takes place. Also at this level of development that same young fighter is fighting more skillful opponents who they can’t just blow out, there’s more give and take and taking less/giving more is the game.

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Canelo vs. Angulo Undercard International Media Conference Call Transcript

Kelly Swanson

Thanks, everybody for joining us today. We’re very excited to be talking about the fantastic undercard of the Canelo vs. Angulo pay-per-view event, which is taking place Saturday, March 8 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and live on Showtime PPV®. Today joining us will be Leo Santa Cruz, Cristian Mijares, Omar Figueroa, Carlos Molina, Jermall Charlo and Eric Gomez, who will be running the call.

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Cotto-Martinez: Exciting for the wrong reasons?

While negotiations are moving particularly slowly, it seems that the June 7th showdown between current Ring/WBC champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2) and The Ring No.3 Jr. Middleweight Miguel Cotto (38-4-0) is inevitable. Their managers have decided on a fight name, venue, date and even catchweight, and are likely now ironing out more details. While many fans would rather see undefeated knockout-king Gennady Golovkin face Martinez instead, this bout remains interesting to the public. The reasons for this, however, may not be the kinds that lend themselves to an actually enjoyable fight.

Some analysts, for one, remain puzzled as to how Cotto has exactly earned this fight. Having lost 2 of his last 3 weights at Jr. Middleweight (both hard fought unanimous decisions), Cotto came back with a riveting knockout early in round 3 of the largely unheralded Delvin Rodriguez. Though Cotto has held world titles in every weight class from 140 – 154 pounds and has long been considered a world class fighter, he has not convinced everyone that he can still deliver that kind of performance against a world champion level fighter. What is even more questionable about him receiving this fight, however, is that Cotto has never even fought at Middleweight, and hasn’t been a World Champion for close to two years.

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Ward likes Khan’s speed and power

WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward has gotten the chance to see Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) up close now that he’s training in the same gym as him in Oakland, California with trainer Virgil Hunter, and Ward likes what he seems. He feels that Khan is throwing with more power than he did previously now that he’s with Hunter, and he thinks he could give anyone in boxing a tough time. Ward didn’t touch on the subject of Khan fighting Mayweather, but obviously he includes him when he says Khan would give anyone trouble.

“He’s [Khan] awkward and hits harder than guys realize,” Ward said to Hustleboss. “He has an awkward style and it works for him. It’s effective. Just the awkwardness, the speed and the pop that he has. I think that would give anyone trouble on any given night.”

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Angulo getting Canelo at the right moment

Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) is getting the 23-year-old Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s) at exact the fight point in time to pull out an upset on March 8th when the two fighters go at it on Showtime pay-per-view at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo was badly schooled in his last fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last September in losing a 12 round decision, and Canelo looked like he didn’t have a clue in how to go about fighting Mayweather.

Canelo had talked for weeks leading up to the fight that he had the perfect game plan to beat Mayweather, and enough fans took the red-haired Canelo for his word to purchase the fight on PPV. But instead of having a game plan, Canelo tried to box Mayweather for most of the fight, and he ended up looking silly. By the time Canelo changed his tactics in the 9th round, he was too far behind to win and he ended up getting clowned.

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Ariza thinks Mayweather may be looking at all the polls in deciding his next opponent

Who says @FloydMayweather is only looking at one poll and not the TOTAL, of all the polls to decide who He fights next.#justsaying

— Alex Ariza (@ArizaFitness) February 17, 2014

Strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr. may be using more than one poll in coming to a decision about who he should fight next between Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana. Khan thought he had the It makes sense. Maidana smashed Khan in three independent polls – ESPN, Fightnews and RingTV – in winning by wide margins where fans weren’t required to log in with a Facebook or Twitter account in order to vote.

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Khan: People want to see Mayweather with a different style than Maidana’s

Amir Khan is still trying to sell himself as the right opponent for Floyd Mayweather Jr. by pointing out the flaws in the game of WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana. Khan believes that fans ultimately will prefer himself as Mayweather’s next opponent rather than Maidana because fans have already seen Mayweather fight a lot of slow fighters. So they now will want to see him face a guy with quick hands and quick feet. Khan thinks Mayweather had problems beating Zab Judah many years ago due to Judah’s fast hands. Khan thinks that this is the weakness in Mayweather’s game him fighting guys with hand speed.

“People want to see Floyd in with a different style,” Khan said to Hustleboss. “If you think about the last three opponents Floyd has faced, they got slow feet, slow hands…I think that suits Floyd Mayweather. What Floyd Mayweather has problems with is speed, explosiveness, and movement, which not many fighters bring to him.”

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