Provodnikov is immensely underrated

He is who is. A swarming brawler who can drag a great fight out of anybody.

But he was outboxed (though, just narrowly) by men from Algieri to even Lucas Matthysse—just swallowing uppercuts like candy.

 

:yep have been in too many wars. hope he wins though I'm fan of provodnikov:bbb:bbb

 

He is fun to watch and a real warrior so that will always get him overrated from fans who appreciate that and sometimes mix up excitment with effectiveness and talent.

I think he is good and his heart and toughness will always give opponents problems, but against anyone with decent skill or awkwardness, he struggles. He gave Bradley a tough fight because Bradley stupidly chose to brawl after some fans said he was boring and the backlash from the controversial first Pac fight.

My problem with him is that, whilst he has never been particularly skillful, ever since winning the title he has regressed even more, skillwise. He has no head movement, comes in in straight lines and barely throws his jab. Against Algieri, he had no game plan what so ever. I don't think I have ever seen a worse example of a guy coming into a fight thinking he could just steamroll over his opponent. There was no setting up attacks, setting traps and no subtlty at all. I saw an interview of his around the time of the Algieri fight and he said that he realised that, in terms of getting the fans respect, titles mean nothing and being in wars is more important. I think this mind set has made him much more predictable and beatable and it will shorten his career as he ships even more punishment than he used to.