Chris Algieri dances away with the title

By skodabanton099 - 06/16/2014 - Comments

algieri484By James Allen: This was not a fight Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KO’s) was supposed to win. How is it that a man who has never been past ten rounds in his life had the audacity to go up against the destroyer of the division and take his title away?

Ruslan Provodnikov earned his reputation as an undeterrable force in March of last year in a losing effort against a then undefeated Timothy Bradley. That night, Ruslan was just there to make up the numbers, having jumped up a division to keep the champ busy. He fulfilled his objective, visibly shaking Bradley almost every time he landed a significant attack and walking through whatever came back at him. Bradley out-boxed the challenger for large stretches in between, and despite taking a knee under immense pressure in the twelfth round, scraped through with the decision.

Ruslan was rewarded for this stellar performance with an outing against newly crowned WBO champion Mike Alvarado back down at 140lbs and attacked the task with the same zest. He eroded the iron will of Alvarado with incessant pressure and hard combinations, forcing the Colorado native to concede defeat on his stool at the end of the tenth. Nobody, not even Brandon Rios with his penchant for recklessness and love for brawling could force Alvarado to quit, so this was some feat.

HBO filmed their ‘2 Days’ feature program around this ascension to the crown, pushing the story of the tough Russian from the wilderness, conquering all with his willingness for combat and the dynamite in his gloves. He has the style and the image that make for a very watchable fighter.

Adversely let us examine Chris Algieri. He had stopped eight of his nineteen obscure opponents and did so with very little fanfare. So little in fact, that I had never even seen him fight. He had never fought anybody I had heard of and I had never seen him on the undercard of a big fight. If I did I cannot for the life of me remember seeing him. Needless to say I did not have high hopes for Algieri. Ruslan was the name here and making his first defence; it looked as though Algieri was brought in as the sacrificial meat for the god of war.

The opening round followed the script. Ruslan, after landing a few thuds to the body, detonated a left hook to the head that drove Algieri on to his back, and brought up massive swelling under the right eye that was visible as soon as he stood again to answer the count. Ruslan forced him to take a knee a few moments later under the force of more blows but Algieri managed to get out of the round, and despite the alterations made to his face, seemed relatively unharmed. Still, losing the first round 10-7 could not have done his confidence any favours. It is based on this assumption that I find what happen next so perplexing: Algieri took over the fight.

He charged to the centre of the ring to begin the second -a habit he would maintain until the end- and began to dictate the terms of the contest. Constantly on the move, pot shooting, firing out combinations at long range, tying up and turning with hits on the way out. In the words of Andre Ward, he was “putting on a clinic.”

Ruslan for his part seemed perplexed. After the initial blitz he looked content to just cut the ring off and come straight in with his hands at his chest, offering little upper body or head movement. He struggled to get in to close range often enough to sustain any attacks, and Algieri’s combinations off the back foot made him look like a fly bouncing against a window. When he did get through the Russian’s punches were clearly the harder, but his success was so sporadic in the first half of the fight it was difficult to envisage him winning any rounds apart from the first up to this point.

As the rounds crept towards double digits Ruslan found more success, but surprisingly, Algieri managed to keep him at bay. The American refused to let his approach deteriorate in to retreat, and pre-empted the Soviet missile strikes with accurate machine gun fire, even rocking Ruslan’s head back on a few occasions.

Ruslan got more of a foothold in the championship rounds but still could not impose his will. Many times in the fight he looked as though he had Algieri trapped on the ropes, only to be clinched and spun, or receive a face full of jabs. He landed very solid left hooks throughout -his only real success- and was no doubt the aggressor, but in the end it was quite an underwhelming performance from the ‘Siberian Rocky’.

There was no grandstand finish, the fight came to a close with a whimper and a hug and the official scorecards read as follows: 117-109 Provodnikov, 114-112, 114-112 Algieri. The disparity in the scoring is not as scandalous as it may appear. Many rounds were very close close and it really comes down to what you prefer, accuracy and output, or (not very effective) aggressiveness and hard punches.

The former champion did not have the versatility to overcome the obstacles placed in front of him in this fight. Here, just as in his first career loss to Mauricio Herrera, he was undone by an opponent with a superior comprehension of distance and timing. Ironically though, his action packed style will always demand more attention than the subtlety of the two men who have beaten him most convincingly. So as long as he remains in and around the title picture there will be financial opportunities aplenty, but he will need to refine his game somewhat as he progresses.

For the new WBO Light-Welterweight Champion of the World, who knows what is next. He now has the win that will lift his career from obscurity and he has collected a major scalp in the process. He is huge at the weight, has very good fundamentals, the engine to go the full twelve, the chin to withstand heavy shots, and the courage to fight his own fight. It looks like there is a new man to watch in the 140lbs division.



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