By Eric Thomas: Trainer Freddie Roach thinks the referee Pat Russell blew a 1st round call last night when he failed to call WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (30-0, 12 KO’s) down when he was dropped by Roach’s fighter Ruslan Provodnikov (22-2, 15 KO’s).

Bradley tried to get back up and staggered backwards and fell again, giving a clear indication that Bradley had been knocked down by Provodnikov. Roach feels that Provodnikov should have been given credit for three 10-8 rounds in the fight, not just one in the 12th.

Roach said to Radio Raheem “I thought he [Provodnikov] won the fight. The first round we had a knockdown. That maybe cost us the fight. We had a good referee in there, and I think he missed the call. We had at least three 10-8 rounds in that fight.”

Roach is right. The missed call did cost Provodnikov the fight because Bradley was given a 12 round unanimous decision win by the following scores: 114-113, 114-113 and 115-113.

If Russell had ruled it a knockdown in the 1st, the fight would have been a draw, and if Russell had seen that Bradley was driven by a punch to the ropes in the 2nd, he arguably should scored that a knockdown as well because the ropes kept Bradley from falling on his back.

Roach didn’t seem nearly as upset about the loss as his fighter Provodnikov, who clearly was upset about the defeat and that he should have won the fight. Of course, Roach isn’t the one who’s missing out on winning a world title. Roach is already wealthy and has a ton of other fighters that he trains.

It would have been a life changing event for Provodnikov had those two knockdowns been counted because he would have been the new WBO welterweight champion, and his next fight would have given him a huge bump in pay whether it be against Bradley or whoever.

As things are now, Provodnikov probably won’t be given another crack at Bradley’s WBO title, and who knows if he’ll get another world title shot against anyone. The missed call by the referee really hurts Provodnikov in a big way.