By Steve Kim
As you watched Ruslan Provodnikov's fourth-round stoppage of Jesus Alvarez Rodriguez this past weekend in Monte Carlo, you saw something rather eye-opening: Provdonikov (25-4, 18KOs) actually avoiding a punch or two.
"Hey, he slipped a lot of punches," stated Joel Diaz, his new trainer with a laugh.
Diaz, who had just started training 'the Siberian Rocky' was very pleased with their maiden voyage together.
"I was very happy with his performance, he did some of the things that we worked on," he told BoxingScene.com after coming back home to Indio, California.
"My main concern was him using what we worked on - defense, rolling under, slipping punches and working the body more and that's what we did. I was very happy and he even told me after the fight, he goes - 'coach, maybe if I would've got reckless in there, I would've made it a harder fight but I wanted to take my time and work and do what we were working on. At times I wasn't used to it but I stuck to what we worked on and it worked well.'"
It's not clear when Provodnikov will be back in the ring but Diaz says he was told by Provodnikov's manager, Vadim Kornilov, to expect the fighter back in the gym in three weeks.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com
