Mike Alvarado-Ruslan Provodnikov Preview and Prediction

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Every year there comes a time for boxing fans when there is 1 fight that whether you have a rooting interest or not you know you can’t miss it, whether it’s Rios-Alvarado in 2012 or Rios-Alvarado 2 in 2013. Well, this is 1 of those fights, and once again it will involve Mike Alvarado. On Saturday from the 1STBANK Center in Denver, Colorado HBO will be showing a Top Rank Promotions title fight between the WBO Junior Welterweight Champion Mike Alvarado and the hard hitting man that is being called the Russian Rocky Ruslan Provodnikov.

As stated earlier, Mike Alvarado (34-1 with 23 KOs) has been though more than 1 war-type of fight, not only in his career but all within the past year. You go way back in his career when he was fighting guys like Michel Rosales and then zoom forward to his more recent fights in the past couple years like the one against Breidis Prescott and the 2, extremely not for the light of heart, fights against Brandon Rios and you can easily see how tough the man from Denver is. After 19 of the most exciting rounds you can see without either man going down in the pair of Rios-Alvarado fights, the promoters thought that it would be safe for both men to give them a break from one another. So while Brandon Rios will be flying overseas to face Manny Pacquiao in November, Alvarado will get a well-deserved homefield fight against a man that is coming here to win and not lay down, Ruslan Provodnikov.

Ruslan Provodnikov steps into the ring Saturday with a record of 22-2 with 15 KOs, but after his last fight against Timothy Bradley the myth of his name has grown exponentially. Before his fight against Bradley Provodnikov’s best opponents were Mauricio Herrera, a fight he lost by unanimous decision, and an 8th round TKO against Javier Jauregui, a fighter that entered the ring with 16 losses. It was the fight against Bradley on the big stage that opened everyone’s eyes. He gave Bradley a concussion early in the fight. There were numerous exchanges with no blocking  and not only did he make Bradley take a knee in the 12th round but if it wasn’t for a missed knockdown call by the ref, the fight may have been stopped and Provodnikov may have gotten the early TKO win. Some still thought he won anyway, but on the scorecards he lost a split decision that had all 3 cards separating the boxers by 1 point.

Alvarado is trying to win another tough fight and at a point you have to wonder when it will all hit him at once. We all love to see boxers go toe to toe, but we also don’t want to see anyone get hurt. Provodnikov is coming in there with nothing to lose. It will be interesting to see his chin tested as we all know Bradley isn’t a power puncher at all. I’m in the minority with my pick. While most are expecting another barnburner and possibly even a Provodnikov win, I’m going with an early to mid-rounds stoppage for Alvarado. We all know that both guys can punch but the difference is we’ve seen how good Alvarado’s chin has been but we just don’t know for sure how good Provodnikov’s is.

It should be a great night of boxing capped off with a big time main event in Denver. No matter who wins, the biggest winner will be us the fans. So get your popcorn ready everyone, this should be fun. Enjoy the fight.