By Tim Fletcher: 31-year-old former WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov (24-4, 17 KOs) will be fighting next month against unbeaten Mexican welterweight Jesus Alvarez Rodriguez (13-0, 10 KOs) on November 7th in Monte Carlo.
The Provodnikov vs. Rodriguez fight will be the headliner on the card, but it’s not a headliner type fight. Rodriguez, 23, hasn’t faced a quality fighter yet during 6-year pro career. Rodriguez’s last two fights have come against Bryan Abraham (6-20-2) and Victor Esquer (5-23-1).
Provodnikov desperately needs a win at this point in his career, as he’s lost 3 out of his last 5 fights. If Provodnikov doesn’t start winning again he could see himself get knocked out of the top 15. When that happens, he can expect to see his nice payday fights becoming rarer.
Provodnikov has made good money in the last couple of years in fights against Chris Algieri, Tim Bradley, Mike Alvarado and Lucas Matthysse. Unfortunately, Provodnikov lost three of those four fights, and he was pretty exposed as being a limited fighter in all of them.
There have been rumors of Provodnikov being in negotiations for a fight against 44-year-old Shane Mosley. Thankfully, that fight didn’t happen because it would have been a potentially difficult one for Provovodnikov to take, and it would been disastrous if he had lost.
Provodnikov didn’t look at all good in beating 41-year-old Jose Luis Castillo last November in winning by a 5th round knockout. It would be really bad if Provodnikov was beaten by Mosley. That would a difficult loss to come back from.
Provodnikov recently parted ways with trainer Freddie Roach after finding little success with him. Provodnikov’s new trainer is Joel Diaz, the former trainer of Tim Bradley. It’s unclear how well that will work for Provodnikov because Diaz isn’t known for being a defensive trainer.
If Provodnikov keeps taking head shots like he did during his time with Roach, then it’s not going to end good with him and Diaz. Provodnikov needs some real help with his defense because he took a lot of punishment in his losses to Algieri, Bradley and especially Matthysse. Even in Provodnikov’s win over Alvarado, he was hit a lot.
The real question is though can Provodnikov win without taking punishment? At 5’6”, Provodnikov is short for a light welterweight, and it’s never going to be easy for him to get close enough to land his punches against the taller fighters in the division like the 5’11” Viktor Postol and 5’9” Lamont Peterson.
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