Its fair to say that the match could have gone either way. One punch alone caused Algeiri's eye to swell up with him taking quite a few of the rounds comfortably. I myself had Provo slightly ahead but some of the rounds were so close that it was very difficult to decide the victor. I switch 2-3rounds and Algerieri wins it as well so my hats off to a well deserved win.
I scored it a draw 113-113 but I have no problem with the 114-112 scorecards for Algieri. The first round was 10-7 and gave Provodnikov an early lead, but Algieri outboxed Provodnikov in most of the rounds.
Had it 113 113 but there were some CLOSE rounds...big credit to Algieri though great performance and I'd like to see him again
His face looked that way after the first round which was scored 10-7 to reflect that. Still 11 more to go. :!: He was stuck in a tiny ring to limit his movement and he didn't hold. Holding is my own pet peeve. I voted draw.
I thought Provodnikov landed some good hard shots throughout the fight but Algeri was outboxing Ruslan for long stretches during each rd the 114-112 scores seemed about right to me.
Poll results for who won the fight as of 10/25/14: Algieri - 53 Provodnikov - 55 Draw - 13 ...and now Algieri is in the main event of an HBO PPV main event against a top P4P ranked fighter moving up a division?! Horrible fight. I scored this fight for Algieri, but getting a shot at Pac up at WW is a horrible fight for Pac, HBO, and the fans that Algieri doesn't deserve (no disrespect to him).