In March 2013, Bradley and Provonikov fought toe-to-toe to the delight of thousands of fans at the Home Depot Center, Carson, California. The fight won the ESPN “Fight of the Year” award.
Provodnikov dominated Bradley in the early rounds, scoring what appeared to be a knockdown in the opening round but was ruled a slip by referee Pat Russell. The Russian brawler continued his unrelenting assault that almost sent Bradley again to the canvas but somehow the “Desert Storm” survived the round.
Bradley and Provodnikov continued to delight the fans with nonstop action from the third round onward but in the ninth round Provodnikov suffered a bad cut that somehow affected his vision. Bradley was winning on points in the later rounds.
Provodnikov needed a knockout to win as he answered the bell in the last round, Later in the round he staggered Bradley with a power left followed by a right and a flurry of punches, sending Bradley to the canvas with just about 15 seconds left in the fight.
It looked like a won fight for Provodnikov as Bradley was visibly hurt but his survival instinct was one of a kind and he was saved by the bell in the last round for a win on points.
Fans have since been clamoring for the Bradley-Provodnikov rematch and it would seem that it is now time to do a second fight to give boxing fans the kind of fight that they wanted to see.
Last Saturday, Provodnikov proved he deserves a rematch against Bradley when he knocked out the unbeaten Rodriguez in four rounds in Monte Carlo. It was Provodnikov’s win under new trainer Joel Diaz, who was Bradley’s longtime trainer before signing up Teddy Atlas to train him for his fight against Brandon Rios.
“This was a good win for me. I felt confident and my defense already felt better. I know that in the next camp things will come together for me and Joel’s training. My goal for next year is to avenge my losses to Lucas Matthysse, Mauricio Herrera, Timothy Bradley and Chris Algieri!”, said Provodnikov.
For his part, Diaz said Provodnikov needs to do a couple of fights to get him in tough shape.
“This was a fight to get him back after the tough fights. We had a strategy of working on defense and body punches. He did a little more of that than he did in previous fights. It will take a couple of fights to get him to where I want,” Diaz said.
“After the fight he said he wanted to redeem his losses to Matthysse, Bradley and Herrera. I like that, and there are other opponents such as Danny Garcia. That would be a great fight because they are both heavy hitters.
While a rematch with Chris Algieri or Lucas Matthysse would be good to avenge his loss, fans cant’s wait to see Bradley and Provodnikov in another action-filled fight.
