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by David P. Greisman - Ruslan Provodnikov and Chris Algieri were not just opponents, but opposites as well. They were so different in so many ways, several of which strongly suggested that Provodnikov would win when they fought this past Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Provodnikov’s background is a Russian nesting doll of harshness. He is an ethnic minority in a small town in a district of western Siberia that on average has less than one person per square mile. His upbringing was difficult, and for a time his future seemed as bleak as his environment.
“I’ve had a very tough life,” Provodnikov said a week before the Algieri fight, with his manager serving as translator. “The way I was brought up and what I had to go through, for me I think it was unimaginable, and I wouldn’t want to go through it again.”
He didn’t want to get too deep into what he had gone through. It would be hard to understand, he said. But he was more open about where he would be if not for boxing.
“I think I would be in jail, it’s 100 percent,” he said with a smile. “It was going towards that. I was on the way. All my friends that I was growing up with, I don’t know where they are. Most of them are in jail, or I don’t even know where they are. I was drinking. I was sniffing glue. I was stealing. I was doing everything that leads a person to get to jail when I was a kid.”
Boxing has long been a sport that attracts the poor. Their energy is directed away from the violence, crime and desperation around them, and they are willing to endure years of pain and discipline in a sport that requires both. As Marvin Hagler was famous for saying, it can be hard to get out of bed early in the morning to run several miles if you’re sleeping in silk pajamas. [Click Here To Read More]
Provodnikov’s background is a Russian nesting doll of harshness. He is an ethnic minority in a small town in a district of western Siberia that on average has less than one person per square mile. His upbringing was difficult, and for a time his future seemed as bleak as his environment.
“I’ve had a very tough life,” Provodnikov said a week before the Algieri fight, with his manager serving as translator. “The way I was brought up and what I had to go through, for me I think it was unimaginable, and I wouldn’t want to go through it again.”
He didn’t want to get too deep into what he had gone through. It would be hard to understand, he said. But he was more open about where he would be if not for boxing.
“I think I would be in jail, it’s 100 percent,” he said with a smile. “It was going towards that. I was on the way. All my friends that I was growing up with, I don’t know where they are. Most of them are in jail, or I don’t even know where they are. I was drinking. I was sniffing glue. I was stealing. I was doing everything that leads a person to get to jail when I was a kid.”
Boxing has long been a sport that attracts the poor. Their energy is directed away from the violence, crime and desperation around them, and they are willing to endure years of pain and discipline in a sport that requires both. As Marvin Hagler was famous for saying, it can be hard to get out of bed early in the morning to run several miles if you’re sleeping in silk pajamas. [Click Here To Read More]
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