I am a huge Provodnikov fan, as is the HBO crew who had written off his unknown challenger Algieri. But, apparently, there was a reason why Ruslan and Freddie wanted a bigger-name harder-hitting opponent, and it wasn’t just the money. Ruslan has trouble with movers, and based on his lack of adaptability and his categorizing of movers as ‘runners’ after the fight, he has no intention of learning how to catch them. Typical heavy infantry meathead material!

After dropping Chris with a sick left hook that virtually melted the right side of his face, all Ruslan did was try to land it again, and Chris was too damned smart for that. Also, a single body shot to a cardio freak like Algieri means nothing. Andre Ward at ringside knew what Chris was doing all along, but his talking head buddies did not get it. Kellerman watches a fight like he’s a woman, mostly concerned with what a fighter’s face looks like. When he fights chicks at the ESPN Zone I bet he pulls their earrings out!

Algieri uses four variations of the jab, two kinds of uppercuts, three kinds of straight rights and three version of the hook. Ruslan has three techniques and needs to get set. If we made boxers fight with knives instead of gloves Algieri would be the world champion in every weight class. His time and measure was impeccable and his sense of kinetics way underrated.

I loved it when Kellerman and the other hair spray guy kept going on about how Algieri would not be able to see the hook coming after his eye closed, not understanding that if you’re half blind all you have to do to time a puncher like Ruslan is watch his hips with the good eye and you will know what he is going to throw, and when, before he knows it.

I really love Ruslan—hell he eats raw moose liver! However, the Siberian head that is designed like the venerable T-34 battle tank seems to have a crew that is just as unimaginative as Zukov’s tankers. The commentators also failed to take into account Ruslan’s veritable indestructibility at light welter, carrying as he does a heavyweight head on a welterweight frame, with muskoxen ribs. Chris had reasonable power, indicated by the fact that Ruslan actually knew he was getting hit. Hell the hardest bangers in the division had a hard time getting his attention.

It really infuriates me when these stuffed suits, who probably need a hammer to crack an egg, say that a guy that has knocked out nine pro fighters ‘has no power’. I think we need to confiscate the HBO crew’s X-BOX so they can’t play Mortal Kombat before the telecast. This was like watching a Doberman Pincer dance around a pit bull for 12 rounds.

Lookout for Chris Algieri, the best converted kick-boxer I have seen in the boxing ring, with a crafty action style, phenomenal conditioning, and an adaptable skill set. If that fight would have been a 40 round affair like they were a hundred years ago, when most fighters had faces like Ruslan, then Algieri would have stopped Ruslan somewhere around Round 30.