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`Siberian Rocky’ Ready To Add a Little Apollo Creed To His Repertoire

Ruslan Provodnikov was smiling like the proverbial Cheshire cat that ate the canary at the 89th annual Boxing Writers Association of America Awards Dinner, at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand on May 1, 2014, where he was a recipient of the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier Award for having been a participant in 2013’s Fight of the Year.
But that wide grin masked an inner pain. The FOY Award was nice, sure, and a testament to the incredible two-way action he and Timothy Bradley Jr. had engaged in on March 16 of that year. But, although Providnikov registered a knockdown in the 12th and final round, a gassed Bradley retained his WBO welterweight championship on a razor-thin but unanimous decision at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. That left Provodnikov feeling like Miss Congeniality at the Miss Universe pageant, winner of nothing more than a very nice consolation prize.
It is a situation that is apt to be repeated at the 91st BWAA Awards Dinner, at a date and site yet to be announced in the spring of 2016. More than halfway through the current calendar year, it is highly likely that Provodnikov’s most recent ring appearance, against Argentina’s Lucas Matthysse on April 18 at the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, N.Y., will be one of the five nominees for the Ali-Frazier Fight of the Year Award. But it was Matthysse who came away with the another close victory, by 12-round majority decision, and Provodnikov is less likely to smile for the cameras if he again is obliged to be the “B” side of the year’s best fight.
There is still time to flip the script, however, which is why Provodnikov, the 31-year-old known as the “Siberian Rocky,” was in Philadelphia Sunday night to meet with selected members of the media and to announce his plans for the remainder of 2015, and beyond.
Art Pelullo, Provodnikov’s Philly-based promoter, said that his fan-friendly fighter is a free agent who made this latest trip to America from his hometown of Beryozovo, Russia, to negotiate the best deal possible for his next bout. The preferred opponent is Matthysse, and if a rematch comes to pass – Pelullo is targeting November or December — it would not surprise anyone if Matthysse-Provodnikov II joined Matthysse-Provodnikov I on the BWAA ballot, as well as on the ballots of other boxing entities that select a Fight of the Year.
“He’s never done less than 1.1 million viewership (on premium cable),” Pelullo said of Provodnikov’s firm grasp on the loyalties of fight fans who see him as a reasonable facsimile of the late, great action hero Arturo Gatti. “Everybody wants to see Ruslan fight.”
But whether Provodnikov fights Matthysse, Brandon Rios, Adrien Broner or whomever, it’s possible his chief second will not be Freddie Roach, who was in his corner for the first Matthysse scrap and all fights since. And even if Roach, a seven-time BWAA Trainer of the Year honoree, is still a key member of Team Ruslan, it’s a good bet that the Provodnikov we see when next he steps inside the ropes will not be the same version that fight fans have come to love for his brawling, mauling ways.
Provodnikov, after finishing off a fine steak and his first-ever crème brulee at the Capital Grille in Center City Philadelphia, said he needs to make certain adjustments to his constantly-attacking style if he is to continue in a sport where those who take two or three to land one usually have short shelf lives. He has a wife and a young son whom he loves dearly, and he would like to be as undamaged as possible for them whenever it is that he decides to step away from the ring wars.
“I realized from the first fight (with Matthysse) it was coming to this,” Provodnikov, with his manager, Vadim Kornilov, translating, said of the realization that what has worked so well, all things considered, in the past might not be good enough moving forward. “Now I know I have progressed only to a certain level. Any opponent that comes into the ring with me knows I have the character, the determination and will do anything to win. But they also know exactly what I’m going to do. My progress has stopped. I haven’t been bringing anything new into my fights. People know if they’re going to fight me, they’re probably not going to survive. They know their only chance is to box and get away from me.
“Now, I have decided to either hang up my gloves or make significant changes, serious changes, in the way I fight, if I’m going to continue fighting. I very much believe the Matthysse rematch is going to happen because that’s what everybody wants to see. But the only way I can win is to make the changes that are necessary, which I’m working on right now.”
Could one of those “necessary” changes be a switch to a trainer other than Roach?
“For now, I’d like to leave that question at `no comment,’” Provodnikov responded. “Time will tell. But for right now, I’m with Freddie.”
Interestingly, Matthysse – a power puncher who usually is only too glad to engage in slugfests – came out sticking and moving against Provodnikov. He built an early points lead in that manner, although he was obliged to trade at close quarters from the middle rounds on as Provodnikov exerted so much pressure that the Argentine had no other option than to meet fire with fire. And Matthysse’s flame nearly was extinguished in the 11th round, when Provodnikov buckled his knees with a thudding shot.
“In the lobby of the hotel after the fight, Matthysse grabbed me,” Pelullo said. “He told me, `Artie, you know he had me out in the 11th, right? If I don’t hold on, I go down and I don’t get up.”
“That was a tactical loss,” Provodnikov continued. “(Matthysse) started quicker because his tactic was to box and jab. Mine was to break him down and get to him, which I started to do after a couple of rounds. But it was getting later and later, and I didn’t have enough time (to finish him off).”
But can an alteration of strategy, this deep into Provodnikov’s career, pay the envisioned dividends? It should be noted that Gatti, after he went with a new trainer, Buddy McGirt, added some stylistic nuances to his familiar full-frontal attacks. As it turned out, the ultimate warrior did have a few tricks up his sleeve that he hadn’t shown before. But when the heat was turned up, and cuteness wasn’t cutting it, it didn’t confuse Gatti in the least to return to what he knew best.
“No matter what, I think knowing how to box is a positive,” Provodnikov said. “But brawling is something that can’t be taken away from me, and it wasn’t taken away from Gatti either. The brawling part is always going to be there, but being able to adjust can only add to my ability to win fights.
“I know that I can box, but I never really train in that sense. I never really developed that. In none of my last several fights did I have a goal of trying to box, even though I think it could have worked. Obviously, I’m not going to become a boxer-boxer, but if I can move a little bit and add certain things, it’s going to add to my arsenal.”
If he fights Matthysse again, and wins, Provodnikov, a former WBO super lightweight champion, will be hotter than hot again. What does he envision happening in 2016 and possibly beyond? There was some talk of his possibly getting it on with Manny Pacquiao, but Pelullo doesn’t see that happening.
“Of course we would fight Pacquiao,” Pelullo said. “We’d fight him in a heartbeat. But in my opinion, (Bob) Arum is going to keep Pacquiao away from Ruslan. Ruslan would knock Pacquiao out. Everybody knows that. Pacquiao would be right in front of Ruslan, and that’s the right style for him. He murders Pacquiao.”
That is an opinion that is not universally shared, but it makes a nice conversation-starter. Who else might be on Provodnikov’s radar and has a big enough name to qualify that matchup as a must-see attraction?
“Danny Garcia,” Pelullo said of the former WBC/WBA super lightweight champion who moves up to welterweight to take on veteran former titlist Paulie Malignaggi Aug. 1 at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn. “We’ll give Garcia $2 million to fight Ruslan at 144, 145, 147, whatever he wants. But Danny wants no part of him, I don’t think. We’d even fight him in Philly. It’d be a megafight. It’d be unbelievable. Can you imagine that fight in Philadelphia? It would be incredible.”
Such is the stuff of which dreams are made. For now, the dream of Ruslan Provodnikov is not only to be in the Fight of the Year, but to win it.
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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More
It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.
In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.
Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.
CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.
****
Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.
Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”
And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.
Joey Archer
Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer
Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.
Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)
Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.
Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.
In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.
When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.
Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.
May he rest in peace.
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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.
Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.
After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.
Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.
One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”
Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.
“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”
Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.
A real fight was happening.
Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.
Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.
In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.
“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”
Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.
In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.
“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”
Espinoza Wins
WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.
“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.
Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.
Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.
It was Espinoza’s third title defense.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.
The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.
The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.
Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.
Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.
A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.
In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.
Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.
Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.
In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.
Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.
Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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