Timothy Bradley Jr. vs. Ruslan Provodnikov - Saturday night fight/chat thread

[Mars_ax]

If they hadn't robbed the Russian of the first round KD he would have won.

I thought the 12th round was a 10-7 round for Provo as well.

[Kirkland Laing]

Fuck me. Typos.

[Kirkland Laing]

No link yet you cnuts.

[Gandalf]

The ref should of stop that fight in more than 1 occasion and I can recall this same ref stopping a fight who was a lot less damaged than how Bradley was.

Credit to Bradley thought he kept trying and as for Ruslan, he needs to work on his stamina. If he had a great stamina he would of easily destroyed Bradley in 4 rounds.

True, Bradley was fucked up. Seeing him fall on his back in the first round was a bit embarrassing and if that was the UK, you would probably have seen it stopped. The UK is dodgy though as we did see a cracking fight. You should at least allow a fighter to show his heart and that happened. I think it was the second too where Bradley was being hurt with everything. I was happy to see him take the knee in the last and think he could have done that sooner to clear his mind a little.

Possibly Bradley just underestimated his opponent somewhat and wouldn't make the same mistakes again. Generally speaking he is a very smart fighter. I want to see a rematch as I think Bradley sold himself a little short. He won, but it was a gruelling victory and Bradley is better than this. I don't think Provodnikov is.

[Mars_ax]

Horseshit!

Great war, solid scrap. Never overlook a guy simply because you never heard of him

That was Tims toughest fight to date

No doubt, he dodged a bullet, Bradley may have officially "won" the fight but he lost the war.

Provo has a future in boxing, there's no shame in losing a close fight to Bradley.

The thing is, Provo is limited, but I had him clearly with 1,2,11,12.....and no will ever convince me that Bradley swept -eight straight rounds- the way he was wobbling and stunned when hit clean. Nope. Tempo changed every time he was touched

It's crying time again for Tim, he's not going to get much credit for this win, and he could easily have 2 losses on his record.

[Tam Seddon]

That was one of the best fight I've seen this year.

[gest12645]

Horseshit!

Great war, solid scrap. Never overlook a guy simply because you never heard of him

That was Tims toughest fight to date

No doubt, he dodged a bullet, Bradley may have officially "won" the fight but he lost the war.

Provo has a future in boxing, there's no shame in losing a close fight to Bradley.

The thing is, Provo is limited, but I had him clearly with 1,2,11,12.....and no will ever convince me that Bradley swept -eight straight rounds- the way he was wobbling and stunned when hit clean. Nope. Tempo changed every time he was touched

It's crying time again for Tim, he's not going to get much credit for this win, and he could easily have 2 losses on his record.

yeah, he clearly lost to Pacman. This fight was close and really could have gone either way: however, how many times has Bradley been hurt and how many times has Provodnikov been hurt? Lopsided in favour of the Russian. Bradley still made it a close fight with his stamina, endurance, heart etc . If Bradley fought smartly , he would've won this fight easy. Summary- Bradley had an off night, Provodnikov was the better fighter today, and Bradley should have 2 losses on his record. Btw, how does a top 10 p4p fighter have such trouble against a guy like Provodnikov (no disrespect to him ) - It shows Bradley is barely top 20 p4p

[Gandalf]

Is anyone truly suggesting that Bradley lost that fight? I find that a strange way of thinking and especially as there was seemingly no KD in the first (I think there should have been a knockdown). Even with 2 scored KD's Provodnikov was outboxed throughout 3 quarters of the fight. That makes it closer, but an actual loss for Bradley? Peculiar.

[Spicoli]

Is anyone truly suggesting that Bradley lost that fight? I find that a strange way of thinking and especially as there was seemingly no KD in the first (I think there should have been a knockdown). Even with 2 scored KD's Provodnikov was outboxed throughout 3 quarters of the fight. That makes it closer, but an actual loss for Bradley? Peculiar.

Bradley was a walking concussion in this fight, he said so himself. He changed his game and boxed given that but he was in no way walking away with clean & comfort rounds like some boxing guru. He was hurt badly, and hurt on the reg.

It was no robbery but one guy alone did the clear hurting in this fight.

[gest12645]

Is anyone truly suggesting that Bradley lost that fight? I find that a strange way of thinking and especially as there was seemingly no KD in the first (I think there should have been a knockdown). Even with 2 scored KD's Provodnikov was outboxed throughout 3 quarters of the fight. That makes it closer, but an actual loss for Bradley? Peculiar.

Bradley outboxed Provodnikov throughout half of the fight is more accurate. The other half was Provodnikov hurting Bradley. It was a close fight, and I won't say it was a bad decision. Still, I think Prov won this by a point

[beenKOed]

That was one of the best fight I've seen this year.

Agreed! I enjoyed it from start to finish.

[Freedom]

I had it 114-113 for Bradley.

But the referee missed a knockdown in round one, which would have changed my scorecard to 113-113.

[Gandalf]

Is anyone truly suggesting that Bradley lost that fight? I find that a strange way of thinking and especially as there was seemingly no KD in the first (I think there should have been a knockdown). Even with 2 scored KD's Provodnikov was outboxed throughout 3 quarters of the fight. That makes it closer, but an actual loss for Bradley? Peculiar.

Bradley was a walking concussion in this fight, he said so himself. He changed his game and boxed given that but he was in no way walking away with clean & comfort rounds like some boxing guru. He was hurt badly, and hurt on the reg.

It was no robbery but one guy alone did the clear hurting in this fight.

It doesn't matter if you beat someone up for 3 rounds and lose the other 9. Boxing is scored on a round by round basis and Bradley outlanded his opponent by a good 130 punches. Provodnikov won the event, but the fight was won by Bradley. The difference in power was obvious, but so was the difference in skill for the vast majority of the fight. Bradley was largely in control in all but rounds 1, 2 and 12 IMO. Provodnikov had his moments in other rounds, but he was largely outboxed. The only reason it was close is because Bradley had the red mist from the off. He fought a tactically terrible fight, but his class won him the rounds. He was a much better boxer.

[Hulk]

Is anyone truly suggesting that Bradley lost that fight? I find that a strange way of thinking and especially as there was seemingly no KD in the first (I think there should have been a knockdown). Even with 2 scored KD's Provodnikov was outboxed throughout 3 quarters of the fight. That makes it closer, but an actual loss for Bradley? Peculiar.

The way the referee ruled the knockdowns and did NOT rule the knockdowns made the decision pretty much have to go to Bradley. You are right with only 1 kd to his credit, Prodnik or as Roy says "whatever his name is" could not win on points.

Pat Russell had a lot to do with the outcome in this one. Constantly going over to Roach's corner to try to stop it after Ruslan had just beat the hell outta Bradley the round before !

Then hovering over Povidnikov about stopping it on the cut.

Then letting the fight go on much longer than most refs would when Bradley was on queer street and FINALLY ruling a knockdown oh so conveniently with 10 seconds left in the damn fight !

Bradley is a warrior and he showed inhuman heart. Proodnikov did as well, and pretty much Chavez vs. Meldrick Taylor'd Bradley's ass.

All of this from the #10 140 lber in the world !!!

[Gandalf]

I really wasn't too impressed with how Bradley looked or sounded in that post fight interview. He talked of being dizzy and seeing the way he was taking punches it just didn't look good. He wasn't slurring or anything, but he did sound a bit drunk and wasn't all there. It was odd as Bradley is usually very clear in his diction and comes across as being very sharp. Also his wife and Mum couldn't watch beyond the first round which wasn't good. Bradley needs to sharpen up quick because this fight was simply not good for him. It was great to watch, but NO fighter at this level should be allowing themselves to be hit 35 odd times in a round against a power puncher when you have all the tools to not be hit like that. I don't see how that is a good strategy.

It was just very disconcerting to me. I couldn't fathom what I was watching at times. Was this an attempt to win over the fans who dismissed him as boring against Manny? Was it simply a man hurt and fighting on instinct? Whatever it was, it wasn't how an elite boxer fights. It was a bit like Hatton/Pacquiao in that second round and you were just wondering when he would be down with his lights out. It was fantastic that he came back and ground out the result, but that team needs to ask some serious questions.

If Bradley continues to be as sloppy as that and against better fighters, he is going to pay the price and it simply won't be a long career and that would be a shame as he is an excellent and versatile fighter. He has all the tools to extend this career until his mid 30's, but fights like that aren't good for anyone.

I say a rematch and to do it properly this time. He can learn from those first 2 rounds and do it right. It really has shades of Barrera/Juarez for me and a rematch has to happen and I would like it be a somewhat tedious boxing clinic as I am a fan of Bradley and know he is better than this.