In a classic bout that lived up to it’s billing, Ruslan Provodnikov won the WBO Jr. Welterweight championship when Mike Alvarado did not continue after round ten of a scheduled twelve round bout at the before 7.012 fans at a soldout 1stBank Arena.
The fight was promoted by Top Rank and Banner Promotions.
The two slugged it out from the opening bell with Provodnikov rocking Alvarado in round one. The two fought at a fast pace and traded vicious shots which thrilled the crowd for every second of the fight.
Alvarado tried to box and move to offset the relentless pressure of Provodnikov. In round seven, Provodnikov started to bleed from the nose and later suffered a cut over his right eye. In round eight the fight turned in favor of Provodnikov when he sent Alvarado to canvas on two occasions.
In round nine, a massive swelling formed over the right eye of Alvarado as he continued to absorb punishment from “The Siberian Rocky”.
Provodnikov battered Alvarado at the end of round nine and ten and Alvarado even walked to the wrong corner.
Just before the eleventh round bell, referee Tony Weeks waved the fight off as Alvarado could not continue.
“This is my best dream come true”, said Provodnikov, who was able to realize the monumental moment with his mother sitting ringside.
“I am a champion like Leonard and Duran. To be a world champion, you must take risks and i did that by coming into his hometown. I give Alvarado a lot of credit, he is a real man, a real champion.
Provodnikov was guided in the corner by Marvin Somodio as chief trainer Freddie was in the Philippines with Manny Pacquiao.
“I needed to win this for Freddie. I miss him”
On the conclusion, Provodnikov finished, “I made him not want to fight me anymore.”
Provodnikov of Beryozovo, Russia is now 23-2 with 16 knockouts.
On the undercard, Banner Promotions fighters also scored wins via stoppage:
Vitor Jones De Oliveria dropped Martin Quesada three times in round two en route to a stoppage at 2:01 of the same round of a scheduled four round super featherweight bout.
The first knockdown came from a hard right to the body. The two subsequent knockdowns also came from body shots the were the culmination of ripping combinations.
De Oliverira of Brasilia, Brazil is now 1-0, 1 no-contest.
De Oliveria, is the nephew of former four time, two-division world champion Acelino “Popo” Freitas was very happy with his performance.
“I stayed calm and after the first knockdown, i knew i could stop him shortly after.
De Oliverira then got very emotional when he said, “I just want to be great and i cant wait to get home to take my mom and sisters to the movies.
Heavyweight Donovan Dennis kicked off the show with a 3rd round stoppage over “previously undefeated Hugo Arceo in a scheduled six round bout.
Dennis dropped Arceo in the first round and then again in round two. He bloodied the nose of Arceo and continued to pound away as he knocked the mouthpiece out several times and the bout was stopped at 2:33 of round one.
Dennis, 221 lbs of Davenport, Iowa improves to 9-1, 1 no-contest with 7 knockouts.
“He was good. He hit hard and kept on coming”, said Dennis
“I need more work and I will keep improving. I need to jab more and that will help me set up the power shots.
IABA UPDATE (WARD AND MCCOMB ADVANCE AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS)
October 20th – Joe Ward and Sean McComb advanced to the last-16 of the AIBA World Elite Championships on unanimous decisions today.
McComb outclassed Gildas Bangana of the Central African Republic to record his second lightweight win (30-26,30-26,30-27) at the 100-nation tournament.
Ward, the No. 6 seed in Almaty, followed that up with victory (30-27,30-26,30-27) over Poland’s Mateusz Tryc in the light-heavyweight class.
Ward, McComb, Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan, Jason Quigley, Tommy McCarthy, are all through to the last-16.
Conlan, Quigley and McCarthy will be in action tomorrow. Click here for results, draws, pictures and comments.
October 20th
(Last 32)
60kg Sean McComb (Ireland) beat Gildas Bangana (Central African Republic) 3-0
81kg Joe Ward (Ireland) beat Mateusz Tryc (Poland)
October 21st
(Last 16)
56kg Michael Conlan (Ireland) v Brian Gonzalez (Mexico)
75kg Jason Quigley (Ireland) v Aston Brown (Scotland)
91kg Tommy McCarthy (Ireland) v Emir Ahmatovic (Germany)
October 22nd
(Last 16)
52kg Paddy Barnes (Ireland) v Simon Nzioki (Kenya)
60kg Seam McComb (Ireland) v Elvin Isayev (Azerbaijan)
Strong session for Ireland
Almaty, Kazakhstan, October 21, 2013 – Irish boxers Michael Conlan and Jason Quigley both progressed to the next round over strong opposition today.
We also had our first all-APB bout with two signed boxers putting each other to the test over three rounds here at the AIBA World Boxing Championships Almaty 2013. Today it was the return of the Light Flyweights (49kg), Bantamweights (56kg) and Middleweights (75kg).
Bout of the session
Middleweight Florentino Falcao Esquiva from Brazil struggled against a fit looking Artem Chebotarev of Russia. In a bout that pitched two APB boxers against each other, we were expecting to witness an exceptional confrontation and this one did not disappoint. In what was a nonstop whirlwind of activity, both boxers imposed themselves at various times, but the balance of power certainly rested with the Russian. By round three, the Russian was clearly dominant and really battering Esquiva. So it was that Chebotarev took massively the win (3:0) to move through to the quarter-finals, where he will be a force to reckon with.
APB boxer of the session
Another APB boxer that was impressive today was Bantamweight Vladimir Nikitin who faced Veaceslav Gojan from Moldova. The Russian looked more convincing than on his last outing where he essentially adopted battering ram tactics. Taking on a very serious opponent in Gojan, he needed to be more sophisticated. This became apparent early on; Nikitin pressured his opponent but the Moldovan was smart and worked hard to keep the game at his preferred distance. The Russian began to evolve his tactics and towards the end of the third, he forced his opponent into the corner and offloaded some unanswered heavy combinations on him. Despite Gojan’s obvious skills, Nikitin proved to be too much for him and he cruised to a clear-cut win.
WSB boxer of the session
Former USA Knockouts boxer Michael Conlan of Ireland took on fellow WSB boxer Brian Gonzalez (Mexico Guerreros) at Bantamweight. The two orthodox fighters put on the kind of display you would expect from boxers at this level. The Mexican as ever wanted to push the pace but with the Irishman willing to stand and bang, he had to be more cautious than he was in previous bouts. Then Conlan tried using evasive techniques at first but soon found that Gonzalez’s speed made that impractical and that also he could do more than hold his own in the trade-offs. He looked to keep the pace of the bout under control. Conlan landed some extremely hard lefts to the body throughout round two and three, and this more than anything began to turn the bout in his favour for the win. “I could tell I was hurting him with the body shots”, said the Irish. “But he is a class opponent. He has very fast hands but I knew he wasn’t able to take the shots I was giving him”.
Road to Almaty boxer of the session
Benson Njangiru of Kenya faced tough Azeri Javid Chalabiyev at Bantamweight. The African was perfectly happy to get in there and mix it up with the Azeri, trading heavy shots and complex combinations in a very brave performance. In general, as the competition progress, the bouts are getting closer and this was no exception. But after a fine performance from Njangiru, the Road to Almaty boxer lost by split decision and Chalabiyev advances.
One to watch
Zhanibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan beat Juan Mercado of Mexico this afternoon. It wasn’t so much that the 6th seeded Kazakh got the victory that was surprising, it was more the way in which he achieved it. The emphatic nature of the win, which was one of the finest from a string of solid performances from the host nation, will send a clear message to his Middleweight rivals. The Mexico Guerreros boxer was barely able to get more than a dozen shots off in the whole of round two while the Kazakh boxer engaged in what was effectively target practice. With Alimkhanuly putting on such a boxing master-class, the local crowd again became highly vocal, which only added to Mercado’s woes. The Mexican got a standing eight count in round three and was forced to retire a few moments later. This bout was only going one way from the beginning and the Kazakh certainly put his mark on the competition.
Elsewhere Mohamed Flissi of Algeria looked good against the very dangerous APB boxer Bin Lv. The Chinese took to the centre of the ring and made use of his highly accurate punching skills in an attempt to pick off the Algerian Light Flyweight. Flissi meanwhile made use of his great footwork to evade the Asian boxer and worked his hooks to the body and the head to disturb the Chinese athlete’s rhythm. This continued across all three rounds in a high paced bout. The Algerian boxer managed to squeeze past Lv to progress to the next round.
Quote of the session
“I changed my game plan and started hitting him with some good shots. He smiled at me…and that is when I knew I was hurting him” – Jason Quigley (Ireland) on his win over Aston Brown of Scotland