By Boxing Muse – @BoxingMuse – When Ruslan ‘Siberian Rocky’ Provodnikov fought Tim Bradley in their March 16th dust up he earned himself the unofficial title of boxing’s most avoided and dangerous fighter. Sharing that reputation with heavy handed middleweight freak of nature Gennadiy Golovkin.
Although the boxing world is becoming aware of ‘Kazakh KO King’ Golovkin, experts in the fraternity have been expressing their highly regarding opinions of Gennadiy for some time now and only recently has he been taken seriously despite his tumultuous amateur career and having never been knocked down or knocked out in over 375 fights (amateur and professional combined) people were slow to give him credit.
But now he is being given attention and is soon to take part in one of many big match-ups in and around the middleweight division against Matthew Macklin who has fought at the highest level. Which leaves Provodnikov alone, as the most avoided and dangerous. Since his close and controversial UD loss to Bradley, Ruslan has almost gone off the map.
Provodnikov gave ‘Desert Storm’ all he could handle and credit to Bradley he hung in there battled back and got the victory. In reflection of Ruslan’s performance it may have hindered the progression of his career rather than help. The Russian showed an iron chin when he was hit with big shots from Bradley, grinned evilly and marched on throwing solid shots and combinations at the WBO champ.
In a spectacular fight, Bradley got knocked down in the 12th round and rocked various times throughout the fight. Bradley even said in HBO’s post fight interview that Provodnikov would beat any 140lb and 147lb fighter out there.
In my opinion there are several reasons why Provodnikov is now the most avoided and dangerous boxer in the game.
Firstly although fighting Bradley last time out he is not a well-known name or a PPV view attraction despite his all action style. Probably due to the stereotype that eastern European boxers are boring to watch and possess the same style.
Secondly Freddie Roach trains Provodnikov and it is safe to say you can receive some of the best sparring around at The Wild Card gym in L.A. And although Roach’s record has been better you cannot deny he is still one of the best coaches in their sport and knows talent when he sees it.
Thirdly Provodnikov only standing at 5′6” with a reach of 66” is a tremendous power puncher. And his ‘Rocky’ boxing style proves him to be a nightmare to fight whatever style the opponent is.
Competing in a glamorous division surrounded by big names either at light-welterweight or welterweight it should be easy for Ruslan to be matched against best.
Ruslan tweeted WBO 140lb Champion of the world Mike Alvarado on the 5th of June saying;
“I’m ready to make war! It doesn’t matter who wins, I know for sure the fans win in this fight no matter what! fight of year”
Time will tell if this fight will be made and this of course would be a good bout”
The facts are that Ruslan is too dangerous to risk fighting if you are a leading name in the division. If you beat him then you are pushed to the limit against a very tough and still fairly unknown European fighter. If you lose to him then you have just lost to a fairly obscure Russian slugger with no star power who is not even the biggest star in his own gym.
To conclude boxing is a business, and the risk to fight the ‘Siberian Rocky’ is just not worth the reward.
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