When it comes to judging boxing they often say ‘you score what you like’, if you value activity you tend to lend that more significance, if you prefer damage dealt you tend to score rounds based on it, if you enjoy strong body punching you can score that highly; the beauty of boxing is that it is subjective and even though the judge’s scorecards were vastly contrasting on Saturday night (two having 112-114 a slight win for Algieri and the other having it 117-109 a huge win for Provodnikov) I can empathise with both, it was just one of those fights. The truth is I could watch the fight ten times and the chances are that I’d score it ten different ways, and none of them would be necessarily wrong.

That being said, Provodnikov’s matchmaker needs taking out and shot; before the fight many people predicted that this would be a difficult night for Provo, a pressure fighter with short arms and heavy hands, he looks to sit down on his hooks at every opportunity and excels when people try to brawl with him. He has been shown to be out-boxed in the past and the theory was that a tall, long-armed fighter like Algieri that could look to stay on the outside, try and hurt Provo as he was moving in and stick and move as soon as he did, would have a chance of out boxing him over 12 rounds. And that’s exactly what happened.

Provo relies heavily on setting his feet before he throws and Algieri had just enough movement laterally to upset his rhythm, and make him miss often enough that he could counter, potshot and move all night. This is how we thought the night would start out, with Algieri sticking and moving but most people felt that eventually when Algieri got tired and when Provodnikov got inside it would be lights out, but Algieri showed that he has the type of gas tank and determination that champions have, and he looks like a great champion, one who has shown that he doesn’t mind getting in the ring with one of the most avoided fighters in the division.

Really though, Provodnikov only has himself self to blame. After the first round it should have been all but over, Algieri twice on the canvas with a fast-swelling eye should have been relatively easy pickings – it was only a couple of months ago that Juergen Braehmer was in a similar position against Enzo Maccarinelli. Maccarinelli’s right eye looked gruesome after a clash of heads in the opening round and Braehmer did exactly what you’d expect, weathered the big knock-out last-ditch efforts of Maccarinelli and punctuated the rounds with enough clean left hooks to show the referee that Maccarinelli couldn’t see them coming. If the corner hadn’t thrown in the towel between rounds the ref would have had no choice but to stop it, but Provo didn’t do enough and what he did was too obvious. Algieri was throwing so many shots that the ref couldn’t stop the fight, by virtue of activity Algieri was letting the officials know that he was okay. Provo wasn’t doing enough to stop this – he should have tried to smother Algieri, put him on the ropes and not relent, make the referee make a decision. Provo’s targeting Algieri’s eye was too obvious as well, he would plant his leading foot and then swing his left hand for the terraces, and Algieri became so used to this that in the later rounds even with his eye completely shut he was avoiding the shots, he could see the punches coming without an eye. Andre Ward noted that he had a sixth sense for it – he didn’t have a sixth sense, it was just that Provo was so obvious. What he should have been doing is mixing things up – Algieri was obviously weary of a big left hook aimed at his eye, so why not throw in a big right hand as Algieri begins to circle off to his left? Similar to the way Lucas Matthysse knocked out Lamont Peterson in their bout. Peterson, being so conscious of Matthysse’s right hand (and rightly so), circled off to his right in order to avoid it but as he did this he ran straight into numerous left hooks that he hadn’t anticipated. That said, Matthysse is slightly less crude than Provo and doesn’t need his feet glued to the canvas to throw, and as for body-punching Provo all but abandoned it midway through the fight – with Algieri out-boxing him why not try to take his legs away by concentrating on the body? I realise that this seems critical of Provodnikov and I don’t mean to diminish Algieri’s achievement but after the first round there wasn’t a person in the house who didn’t think that it was going to be a short night.

So what next for both fighters?

This fight put Provo in a difficult position. Not only was he on the wrong end of a style matchup but this was really the first time he had been the favourite going into the fight, it’s always difficult to live up to expectations in this sort of scenario but also Algieri was also a disappointing opponent for him. Provodnikov was very outspoken in the run up to the fight about how he was after bigger opponents; Marquez, Rios and even Pacqiuao were all names that were being banded around in the months prior and now they are all but off the table. It’s possible that Provodnikov simply couldn’t get it up for this fight, knowing what could lie ahead, now it seems his career is at risk of taking a misstep. He’s a difficult opponent with no belt to bargain big fights with, and could find himself avoided by others. Although I’d still fancy him against an aging Marquez, I’m not sure whether an aging Marquez would fancy Provodkinov. Top Rank likes to keep things in house and whereas Provodnikov isn’t officially a Top Rank fighter he seems to work exclusively with them, so a tune up and then hopefully a faceoff with awkward Viktor Postol seems like the most likely scenario, by this point Postol may or may not have a major belt as he is currently the number one contender for Danny Garcia’s WBC belt. A matchup against Brandon Rios could happen somewhere down the line and would most likely be a fight of the year candidate but it seems that Top Rank’s advisers don’t want that for Rios just yet, but with the boxing Cold War possibly coming to an end it could even be that a whole host of new opportunities could make themselves available. I’m not going to get too far ahead of myself here – whereas we can all imagine our Golden Boy/Top Rank dream fights we’re still really waiting for the cards to fall, so nobody quite knows what’s going to happen as of yet, but a Provo vs Matthysse matchup could be set in a ring the size of a phone booth.

As for Algieri at this point in time the sky is the limit. He’s proved himself to be a tough, skilled and tricky champion with an almost unlimited gas tank, and he can cause problems to anyone in the division. I’m led to believe that there was a rematch clause built into the Provo contract and for Algieri it wouldn’t be a bad idea, he could find himself out-boxing and out-landing Provo again in a fight made easier by having two functioning eyes. Adrien Broner is a man flirting with the light welterweight division and Algieri would be considered the easiest belt on offer to him, it would be an interesting matchup; Broner, a usually low output fighter, could have problems with Algieri’s size and volume but could be encouraged by Algieri’s inability to hurt him, and Broner (supposing he actually let his hands go) could make it a close fight where anything could happen and one that would could be sold to a casual audience. Even Lamont Peterson must be considering a unification match to try and save his continually falling stock – he has become something of a forgotten man in the light welterweight division and with his mandatory completed in January he’ll either look to stay busy or go for a big money fight and a unification always spells decent money.

It was nice to see such an interesting style matchup and even more interesting to see judges scoring what was happening in the rounds rather than falling into the trap of scoring the blood. Win or lose, Provodnikov was going to find himself devalued somewhat after being out-boxed and it was refreshing to see a fighter acknowledge their weaknesses in a post-fight interview. Provodkinov has never claimed to be anything other than a limited brawler and he wasn’t exposed on Saturday night, just devalued somewhat, he’ll still be a fan favourite for some time to come and we’ll see him in exciting fights again in the future. His career progression has been curious as he’s gone from a little-known Friday night fighter to ‘far better than we ever thought he was’, then to World Champion and now to ‘not as good as we originally thought’. In boxing you’re only ever as good as your last fight but I get the feeling that we haven’t seen the last of Provodnikov yet. As for Algieri he was given an opportunity that nobody believed he was capable of and seized it for all it was worth. He seems to be a humble man who professed in his post-fight interviews that he values winning and sport above money and fame – an anti-Broner if you will – win or lose he was going to put his name on the map and appears to have the sort of intelligence and ring IQ that would allow him to move up in weight supposing that he wants to, not to mention that as he’s a clinical nutritionist making weight is never going to be an issue. As for losing his power, he doesn’t really have too much to begin with so that’s not too much of an issue either. Now that he’s champion he looks like a really neat addition to the higher echelons of the Light Welterweight division, a champion who will take on all comers for the competition rather than the money. And that can only be a good thing.