Provodnikov’s loss means no Pacquiao dream fight

By Boxing News - 06/15/2014 - Comments

provodnikov74By Chris Williams: Ruslan Provodnikov (23-3, 16 KO’s) lost something much bigger than his WBO light welterweight title last night in his 12 round split decision defeat to New Yorker Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KO’s) at the Barclays Center in New York; Provodikov’s defeat erased any chance that he had of getting matched up against Manny Pacquiao for a huge money fight for November.

That was a fight that was possible for him had he won last night, because he absolutely needed a win in order to get that fight. But with the way that Provodnikov looked last night, with him looking limited, confused and very much like Brandon Rios 2.0, there’s no way that Bob Arum of Top Rank will give him a Pacquiao fight.

Of course, Arum has matched fighters coming off of defeats against Pacquiao in the past, but it’s probably not going to happen this time. Fans would be irate if Arum put a Rios-like Provodnikov in with Pacquiao fight now. As bad as Provodnikov looked last night, he made Rios looked like a master boxer. Rios looked far better in losing to Pacquiao than Provodnikov looked last night in moving around the ring and just throwing wild left hooks and missing Algieiri by a mile.

Provodnikov could reinsert himself into the Pacquiao equation if he’s able to beat 1-3 high quality fighters in the future, but right now he’s going to need to build himself back up and that’s going to take a while to do. I’m not sure if it’s actually possible for Provodnikov to do that though, because he was already exposed by Mauricio Herrera in the past and Algieri merely followed Herrera’s blueprint in how to beat Provodnikov.

You can bet that other fighters will do the same thing with Provodnikov unless Arum matches him against guys that are totally one-dimensional sluggers with no boxing ability whatsoever. That’s kind of what Provodnikov was saying he wanted after the fight when he confessed that he doesn’t like fighting guys that can box. He was sending a message ‘I can only beat fighters that stand in front of me.’

With this win, Algieri now takes Provodnikov’s place in the Pacquiao sweepstakes for November, and you’ve got to like his chances of getting that fight unless Arum can get someone like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Danny Garcia, Amir Khan or Juan Manuel Marquez to agree to fight Pacquiao.

As for Provodnikov, he should be demanding a rematch with Algieri because he really can’t move on from this fight due to his lost credibility. He needs to redeem himself and show that the loss was a fluke.

Provodnikov should probably dump his trainer Freddie Roach; I think that’s a given. He needs a smart trainer like Virgil Hunter who can teach him to throw combinations and punch to the body. We didn’t see Provodnikov throwing shots to the body in this fight, and that’s his trainer Roach’s fault. It was nothing but head shots from Provodnikov, and there should have been some kind of an adjustment made early on when it was clear that Provodnikov was missing too many of his punches that he was throwing to the head.



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