By Erik Thomas: In a rather unimpressive performance on Monday evening, No. 13 ranked light welterweight contender Ruslan Provonikov (20-1, 13 KO’s) defeated former WBO lightweight champion DeMarcus Corley (37-19-1, 22 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the DIVS in Ekaterinburg, Russia, The final judges scores were 117-111, 119-110 and 118-111.
There is little doubt that Provonikov was the winner in the fight, but the scores should have been a lot closer than the ones handed down, as Provonikov fought most of the fight as if he were walking on egg shells. He seemed really worried about Corley’s power and didn’t fight in the usual brawling style that he’s become accustomed to. The new style of fighting really doesn’t suit Provonikov very well, because at 5’6”, he’s too short to fight without brawling against the better fighters.
Had he been in with a high quality fighter last night rather than the journeyman Corley, Provonikov would have likely been easily beat. He lacks power and can’t afford to fight at a leisurely pace. The fight was very boring for the first six rounds, because Corley was doing most of the work and landing the much harder shots.
Around the 7th, Corley started to fade and that’s when Provonikov took over the fight. By then, the Russian crowd looked as if they were sound asleep from the lack of action. Provonikov did what he had to do to win pretty much all of the second half rounds with his higher work rate and pressure.
However, the southpaw Corley continued to be the much harder puncher and would land a big bomb every now and then. Provonikov showed a good chin if nothing else in the fight. In the 9th, Provonikov suffered a gapping cut on his left eyebrow. The blood wasn’t a factor in the fight, though, because it drained to the side of his face rather than in his eyes.
With this loss Corley has now lost eight of his last night fights. I don’t see Provonikov going any place in the light welterweight division due to his lack of size and power. He needs to move down in weight to the lightweight division or better yet the super featherweight division, because he’s just too short and too weak to be a factor at 140. Even at 135, Provonikov would likely be too weak to do much other than be one of the many contenders.