Adrien Broner vs. Ruslan Provodnikov possible for November

By Boxing News - 07/31/2015 - Comments

broner67By Dan Ambrose: Former three division world champion Adrien Broner (30-2, 22 KOs) could be taking a tough bounce back fight against former WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov (24-4, 17 KOs) this November for a fight that is being planned for Showtime, according to Dan Rafael. The Broner vs. Provodnilov fight is still in the planning stages at this point and not a given.

It’s a tough fight for the 25-year-old Broner, who lost his last fight in June to former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter by a 12 round unanimous decision. #4 WBC, #4 WBO, #8 WBA Broner only averaged 26 punches thrown per round in the fight. He spent much of the time holding and moving rather than throwing punches.

When Broner did let his hands go, he was landing pot shots instead of combinations. This made it easy for Porter to win rounds by being busier. When Broner did elect to hold, Porter fought through the clinches and continued to throw punches while being held. It made Broner like he didn’t want to fight with Porter still throwing shots while being held.

“I have heard that there is a possibility of a Novemberish fight with Provodnikov, who I am told is in discussions for a deal at Showtime. It’s possible that fight could kick off a deal if a deal is made. We’ll see,” Rafael said during his chat on Friday at espn.com.

#2 WBA, #5 IBF, #6 WBC Provodnikov lost his last fight to Lucas Matthysse by a 12 round majority decision last April in a close fight. Provodnikov was dominated in the first half of the fight, but he was able to come back strong to hurt Matthysse in the last six rounds. However, he still didn’t do quite enough to get the win.

Provodnikov has lost two out of his last three fights. He was out-boxed by Chris Algieri in losing by a 12 round decision last year in June in a fight that he lost his WBO 140lb title. Provodnikov came back from that defeat to stop former lightweight world champion Jose Luis Castillo by a 5th round knockout last November.

Broner will need to throw a lot of punches if he wants to defeat Provodnikov by a clear decision. He’s not going to be able to move enough to get a decision because Provodnikov is very good at cutting off the ring against his opponents. One would hope that Broner has learned his lesson about holding too much. He can’t continue to fight like that if he wants to be able to defeat the better fighters in the welterweight division. The only way that Broner can beat the top guys is by throwing a lot of shots. He doesn’t move well enough to get out of the way of their shots like some fighters.

Before his loss to Porter, Broner had been talking about him stepping into Floyd Mayweather Jr’s shoes as the No.1 pay-per-view attraction in the sport. That doesn’t look like it’s possible now given how poor Broner fought in the Porter fight. All he can hope for now is if he can somehow win a world title at 140 and hold onto the belt for a period of time.



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