Saturday night Mike Alvarado felt good. Why shouldn’t he? He was in front of his hometown fans at 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, Denver, Colorado. He was feeling very confidant and ready to give the 29 yr old Ruslan Provodnikov a boxing lesson. He was eager to tee off on the head of this straight forward Russian from Beryozovo. He watched Timothy Bradley win a tough fight against Ruslan. He also knew “Desert Storm” came close to getting stopped. But, Mike wasn’t going to get sucked into a slugfest with Ruslan, but even if he did he still had the size and strength advantage, right?
HBO’s Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman and Roy Jones, Jr. weren’t so sure. They wondered which Mike was going to show up Saturday night? The one who got stopped in the first fight with Brandon Rios, or the Alvarado who showed up in the 2nd fight, the Alvarado who boxed beautifully to get a win over Rios. They collectively thought there was a real danger that once Mike got tagged, he would get pulled into the trenches and start trading with Ruslan.