Alvarado vs. Provodnikov this Saturday on HBO

By Boxing News - 10/14/2013 - Comments

alvarado55By Allan Fox: WBO junior welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-1, 23 KO’s) and challenger Ruslan Provodnikov (22-2, 15 KO’s) square off this Saturday night in a fight televised by HBO from the 1STBANK Center, Broomfield, Denver, Colorado, USA. Alvarado says he’s going to mix up his game plan by boxing and punching on Saturday.

In other words, Alvarado isn’t going to just stand in front of Provodnikov for 12 rounds like he tried to do in his first fight with Brandon Rios last year in October. Alvarado realizes now that his best chances of winning is if he can box a good percentage of the time instead of going to war like he used to do.

Alvarado said this about Saturday’s fight via Fightnews “I have a good game plan. I know I’m going to box the way I need to to win this fight.”

In the last few weeks, Alvarado has said that the fight could turn into a war, but it’s not likely to happen. He may be talking about the fight being a war, but he’s 33-years-old and that’s not a good style for him any longer. He’s much better if he uses his boxing ability and mixes in power shots every now and then instead of standing and trading with the younger fighters like Provodnikov.

For his part, Provodnikov thinks Alvarado has a confidence problem and he says he’s got no other choice but to slug with him. If he tries to use movement, Provodnikov says he’ll cut off the ring and force him to brawl like he did with Tim Bradley last March. I’m not sure that Provodnikov realizes how well Alvarado can move around the ring because unless he’s really good at cutting off the ring, he’s not going to be able to force him to fight the way he wants him to. Alvarado was moving at a pretty good pace in his rematch against Brandon Rios last March, and it’s not easy to cut off the ring when a fighter is almost moving laterally at a fast pace the way that Alvarado was in that fight.

Both fighters have good power, and Alvarado might be a little bit faster. At 5’9″, Alvarado will definitely have the size and reach advantage over the 5’6″ Provodnikov. Alvarado is a big light welterweight, and he’ll likely be nearly 160 lbs. by the time he enters the ring on Saturday night. Provodnikov will need to get inside on Alvarado because if he stays on the outside all night, then he’ll get carved up in this fight. Alvarado is a much better puncher than Bradley, and Provodnikov’s face was badly swollen up by the end of the Bradley fight.



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