Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank
On Saturday, October 19, 2013, Ruslan Provodnikov proved to be too powerful and too tough for Mike Alvarado.
Ruslan is now the WBO Light Welterweight champion and he was more than excited at the win.
Alvarado had the perfect game plan, doing what Bradley should have in his fight with the Siberian Rocky. He kept his hands up, used lateral movement, and kept Provodnikov at a distance.
The earlier rounds were mostly for Alvarado, who did enough to keep the Russian off for the first half of the fight.
The 8th round changed everything.
Provodnikov landed a strong left hook and used it to start a barrage that knocked down Alvarado. Instead of immediately getting up, Alvarado took his time and allowed the referee to count.
This enabled him to get back to his senses and for the round to come nearer to the end. Alvarado was dropped yet again by another barrage, and the professional in Alvarado once again allowed him to wait for the count.
He took his time to get up, and did enough to survive. By the end of the round, Alvarado was back to his senses and was boxing.
It became clear in the 10th round that the two knockdowns were too much for Alvarado to recover from. Provodnikov managed to land another barrage on Alvarado by the round’s end, and Alvarado could no longer continue.
After the fight, Provodnikov stated, “I knew what I had to do was break him. I had to break his will to win this fight and I did that.” Indeed, he did.
With the big win, Provodnikov improves to 23-2, 16 KOs, while Alvarado drops to 34-2, 23 KOs.
The main undercard bout–which was streamed on Top Rank TV–featured the continued comeback of Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz as he took on Juan Santiago.
Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank
Juan Diaz began the fight just as he finished, coming forward with left hands to the body and to the chin.
Tonight marked a successful return to Top Rank, a promotional company Diaz believes will help transition him from a returning veteran to five-time world Champion–if things work out as planned, of course.
Diaz landed shots at will on Juan Santiago, who now has 14 wins and 11 losses. His record throws light on the kind of fight this was, a sparring session for future, more competitive bouts.
Diaz showed that he can still work for 10 rounds, but it is still unknown if he can be competitive against better fighters.
His performance was largely overshadowed by Santiago’s, who demonstrated an unusual threshold for punishment.
Diaz improves to 38-4, 19 KOs and as he stated himself, “I got the work in.”
Stay with Round By Round Boxing as we provide live results of Juan Diaz (37-4, 19 KOs) vs. Juan Santiago (14-10, 8 KOs) and Mike Alvarado vs. Ruslan Provodnikov.
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