Willie Palms

Transcription

♪ The following is a presentation of HBO Sports. Hello. I'm Jim Lampley. Coming up October 12, HBO Pay-Per-View will take you live to Las Vegas for the Pay-Per-View showdown between Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez. We're going to help get you ready for that now by looking at Bradley's last appearance in the ring. It took place March 16 of this year. It followed months of Bradley searching for a big-money follow-up to his surprising upset win over Manny Pacquiao the preceding summer. Ultimately he settled on Siberian brawler Ruslan Provodnikov as his opponent, and fight fans are grateful he did, because on March 16 in Carson, California, they produced a thriller. Here's how I called it, in company with Max Kellerman and Roy Jones. ANNOUNCER: He enters the ring wearing black with silver and gold trim. When he stepped on the scale, he weighed in at an official 146 and 1/2 pounds. And as a professional, he maintains a record consisting of 22 victories against one lone defeat, with 15 of those victories coming by way of knockout. From Beryozvo, Khanty-Mansi, Russia, the Siberian Rocky, Ruslan Provodnikov! [Bell rings] [Cheering and applause] Across the ring in the red corner, he enters wearing black with white trim. He weighed in at an identical 146 and 1/2 pounds. He enters the ring an undefeated fighter with 29 victories,12 KOs, and one no contest. His previous performance catapulted him to boxing superstardom, and tonight he defends his WBO World Welterweight Championship. The 4-time world champion, representing Palm Springs, California... [Crowd cheering] Desert Storm, Timothy... Bradley! [Bell rings] [Cheering and applause] MAN: Man, you're working hard today. MAN: I know. I can't even-- I got to sweep up afterwards, too. It's not pretty. I'm just glad I'm not in here. Ha ha ha! REFEREE: All right. Gentlemen, let's go. There's the line right there, right in the middle of the swoosh. There's the line. It's right at the edge right there. It's great. 12 rounds for the championship, WBO Welterweight of the World. Touch them up. Good luck. Come out at the bell. LAMPLEY: Top Rank, Tim Bradley's promoter, hopes that this fight is the start of an informal welterweightish tournament involving Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny Pacquiao, the winner of Rios and Alvarado, and the winner here tonight. [Bell rings] KELLERMAN: Veteran referee Pat Russell in the ring. And here comes Provodnikov, trying to get low and get into a position where he can possibly get at Bradley's body. We struggled in the fighter meeting yesterday to define Tim Bradley's fighting style and ultimately came to the point of saying, "Well, it's an athletic style." He can adjust to just about whatever the other guy might do some way or another in the fight. He's not really a boxer puncher. He's not a puncher. He's definitely not a brawler. He's not really a pure boxer. He's a guy who has the athletic skill to do just about anything at any given moment. JONES: He's boxing's Tim Tebow. He always wins. Ha ha ha! LAMPLEY: With some better craft than Tebow. JONES: Ha ha ha! You know, he gained a lot of respect-- I gained a lot of respect for him yesterday in the fighter meeting because it's not often that you see a guy go through the biggest fight of his career and then get treated the way that he was treated afterwards, but it shows you that he is one of the most honest guys in the sport of boxing. RUSSELL: Stop! LAMPLEY: And graceful. Yeah. LAMPLEY: And straightforward and, at the end of the day, a real man. And I have to say I love him for that. Bradley tries, I think, to be a boxer puncher but just isn't a big puncher. But he does hit hard enough to keep guys honest, and he's a pit bull, you know? Once he locks on, try to shake him loose. Provodnikov giving as good as he gets in that exchange. The first 30 seconds of the fight were mostly grappling. RUSSELL: Watch the heads. Provodnikov has gotten in a couple of good body shots, and one big knock upstairs in the last 45 seconds. There's another left hook. There's Bradley's left hook. Twice in a row. High-action fight. This has turned into a pit-bull fight for real. Two pit bulls. Well, Provodnikov has to have that in him, or else Freddy Roach wouldn't have used him as a sparring partner, getting Pacquiao ready for Bradley. That's exactly right. Real good action. Talk about an honest guy and a real man-- Ruslan Provodnikov's only loss was to Mauricio Herrera. A lot of ring-siders felt as though it was a bad decision and he won the fight. Provodnikov says, "No, no. That's not true. Don't take credit away from Herrera--" Oh! Big right hand. Big right hand by Provodnikov! And Bradley is not going to be judged with a knockdown, and even though he falls back on his back while trying to get up, Pat Russell rules it a slip, not a knockdown. Bradley's been on the deck before, memorably twice against Kendall Holt. Got up to win that fight. Provodnikov's a good puncher. He was knocked down once early and once late against Holt, and he has been ripped by Provodnikov in the last 30 seconds of the first round, and I think he's very lucky-- very lucky that Pat Russell didn't rule this a knockdown. Hey, I told you not to fucking get... in there, man, OK? Now, what did I tell you about the first and second rounds? The first and second round? OK, come on. Hey. I told you to--I told you to blast this fucking guy. Right? Wait till he wears down a little bit. Then you want to get inside, OK? Don't worry about that. Wait up, Jackson. Wait up. Wait up. Tim, hey, you got to be fucking smart and do what I told you the first two fucking rounds. JONES: Here you see Provodnikov come right over to jab with an overhand right. Tim was throwing an overhand right, a right hand, at the same time. What a great shot. Once again, right over the top of the jab, you see Provodnikov come with that good overhand right. Very short burst. Hurt Timothy Bradley pretty bad. That should have put him to sleep, Roy. Yeah, it should have, but Timothy Bradley has one good chin on him. We already knew that. CompuBox numbers in round one. What a round. Bradley 27 of 74. Provodnikov 24 of 69. Provodnikov had 14 power shots landed in the last minute of the round. Bradley may still be just a little woozy as the second round begins. Bradley came out in that first round with something to prove, and it may have worked against him. Provodnikov all but grinning at him through the mouth guard. Little lateral foot movements keeping Bradley out of trouble here, but now he gets rocked again by a right hand. He's hurt again. Trying to fight his way through it and taking another right hand and still standing up. Bradley has no answer for that little looping right hand on the inside, Roy. Yes, he does. He's got his own right hand. Another right hand lands for Provodnikov. They are trading shots. Bombs. KELLERMAN: What a fight! RUSSELL: All right, I got it. Stop clutching. Step back. Bradley's trying to get away from it by going right, but when he leans there too long, he's still in the path of that right hand. He's landed some of his own right hands, too, and I think he may have hurt Provodnikov that time. Left hook lands for Provodnikov! Gets Bradley into the corner, stalking, stalking. Bradley firing shots of his own. They shouldn't be fighting straight up to that corner like that. Oh, oh. Neither man is hard to find. Bradley eats another big left hand. Huge shot. RUSSELL: No, no, no, no. And that's another slip. RUSSELL: No knockdown. As Provodnikov tried to fly at him. Bradley's looking to really land something big, but it's Provodnikov that's doing the hurting here. And Bradley standing up straight, Roy. Yeah. He's getting hurt because he's standing so straight up. I don't like to see him standing this straight up. He's really out on his feet right now. It appears that if it's gonna be... One shot gonna finish him. Provodnikov is the stronger man. Yep. By standing straight up, he's also a sitting duck for the sweeping left hook. That's exactly right, and Provodnikov is getting hurt, too, though. Provodnikov is hurt himself right now--trust me. What a fight. Both of these guys are hurt right now. Oh, there goes Bradley. Both fighters are badly hurt right now. 20 seconds left in the round. Can Provodnikov find the answer to getting Bradley off his feet? Bradley has no legs. Provodnikov misses twice. And he's gonna make it out of the round. [Bell rings] [Cheering and applause] Know what I'm saying? You're catching him in the exchanges. Keep bobbing and weaving. [Man speaking Russian] RUSSELL: Rusland, how we doing? Round 3. Both hands. You good? Yes, sir. JONES: Here you see Provodnikov land that big, looping overhand right. [Whistle blows] Then he caught with a left hook when Bradley was straight up in the corner, and that hurt Bradley pretty bad. And once again, he lands another left hook after Bradley hit him with a left hook. [Bell rings] So they were hurting one another in that round. LAMPLEY: CompuBox numbers in the round: Bradley 28 out of 80; Provodnikov 38 out of 97. Provodnikov with a big edge in power shots. Now here comes Bradley as the third round begins. And I can guarantee you that Bradley is in a better position right now because this is the type of fight that he's used to. Elaborate on that, Roy. Well, he's the type of guy that wants a fight to get late, where everybody gets tired. He has more heart than most people that ever think about coming into the boxing ring. And more stamina. So a late fight is great for him. Provodnikov being a big puncher, his trainer had told him to go a few rounds first, let him burn off some of this powerful steam that he has, then box him. Well, this is why. Right. Bradley feels that if it comes down heart to heart, he's got an advantage. That's his best opportunity because this guy is so strong. But Provodnikov has not been in as many big fights as Bradley has or has been in the distance as many times as Bradley has. But then there's the reality, if Bradley keeps getting caught with that right hand and then stands straight up for the hook, he can have the biggest heart in the world. Yeah, but now he seems to be settling back down to himself, and what we also have to realize is that Bradley's been off for 10 months, you know what I'm saying? So to take a fight like this off of a 10-month layoff says a lot about Bradley, too. [Crowd chanting "Bradley"] RUSSELL: All right, I got to stop... Provodnikov threw 97 punches in the second round and has fought the third round as though he's arm-weary. JONES: Exactly, because he's not used to throwing that many punches, and Timothy Bradley was also hitting him during those exchanges. Yeah. Bradley came out this round, it looked, "Let me keep this guy off me. Let me set him straight early in the round and then worry about boxing. And Bradley is definitely going to the body. Provodnikov is not really going to the body at all. This has been a vacation round for Ruslan Provodnikov. He's probably trying to look for one big shot. Hasn't found it. Bradley realizes now that Provodnikov is arm-weary and isn't throwing, and takes advantage of all this to step up his own activity level and begin to score. And this is the time that Max is speaking about where you really find out how bad Timothy Bradley wants to win. This is where other fighters find out what it really means to want to win. Yeah. Most fighters who ever lived are knocked out already... Ha ha ha! with those shots Provodnikov is landing. And Provodnikov looks like he's wondering right now, "How in the world is this guy still in front of me?" Probably is. [Jones chuckles] There are some fans in the arena who are wondering how he's still there. His name is not "Desert Storm" for no reason. [Bell rings] A clearly exhausted Ruslan Provodnikov simply walks around the ring in round number 3, and Bradley easily wins it. That's the way to box. That's the way. Hey. You feel better now? Yeah. OK. You ran into some fucking problems in there, man. You can't do this shit, OK? Remember, he has to fight your fight. Don't fight his fucking fight. OK. You got this? Yeah. OK. Every time he wants to work, he wants to push you to the ropes. Just fucking get inside on him, like you did right now. OK. Don't let his ass work, OK? Don't let his ass work, Tim. Every time he wants to-- ROACH: The jab is working for you. [Man speaking Russian] Get your distance, get the power shot behind the jab, OK? RUSSELL: He is good? ROACH: He's fine. [Whistle blows] LAMPLEY: Referee Pat Russell wondered about Provodnikov after a round in which he only threw 15 punches. Remember, 97 punches thrown in the preceding round. Only landed two punches in that round. Bradley with 21 of 56. Harold, how did you score the first 3? HAROLD LEDERMAN: OK, Jim. I got it two rounds to one, 29-28. Ruslan Provodnikov-- he clearly won the first two rounds. Great rounds. Timothy Bradley was down on his feet. I'm amazed he stayed up. He's got a big heart, a lot of guts. He endured the first two rounds. Provodnikov just looked arm-weary like he folded in round 3. Easy fight to score. 2-1 Provodnikov. LAMPLEY: It is easy, Harold, but no 10-8 for Provodnikov? Has to be a 10-8. You're saying the second round is a 10-8, right, Max? Bradley was several moments away from being stopped. I mean, out on his feet-- LAMPLEY: Oh! Another right hand for Provodnikov. This one, Bradley takes very well. Pat Russell stopped Rios/Alvarado. I don't know that Alvarado was in worse condition than Bradley was. Pat Russell might have given Bradley a break by not ruling a knockdown in round one here. RUSSELL: All right, free up those hands. Free them up. JONES: Good body work by Bradley. Provodnikov still doesn't seem in a position to pull the trigger here, as Bradley is beating him to the punch, beating him to the punch. Sometimes fighting as a southpaw in the middle of the ring. RUSSELL: Free hands. Free them up. Free hands. Watch your heads. Free hands. Provodnikov catches Bradley again. They trade right hands. Provodnikov is a serious puncher when he does punch. On the inside. See, Bradley leans on his right foot and provides a sitting duck for that Provodnikov right hand. Oh, good shot. Good uppercut by Bradley. Follows up with a right hand. Good body shots by Timothy Bradley. Whipping Provodnikov face to face now. RUSSELL: Free them up. Free hands. Let him go, Tim. Free hands. There's another right hand for Provodnikov. Bradley managed to roll with that punch and limit the impact. JONES: They don't have the same steam on them as they had before, Jim. RUSSELL: Stop at the bell. JONES: Oh! Good shot. [Bell rings] Good body work. Excellent body rally at the end of the round by Bradley. OK, now, he's moving into your right hand. The only hand right is gonna be the first shot. [Man speaking Russian] Loop and a little bit over, OK? He's moving right into it, OK? All right? RUSSELL: How's he doing? ROACH: He's fine. You feint with the left hand and go with the right hand over the top. JONES: Here you see Provodnikov land a beautiful overhand right right on the top of Bradley's jab, but Bradley comes back late in the round with a beautiful right uppercut, and he follows it, I think, with another jab or two-- with a hook, rather, and a right uppercut. Talk about Bradley's stamina... [Bell rings] he had a very busy round in round 4, throwing 107 punches, landing 48 of them. Provodnikov was only 12 of 37. Bradley has warmed up now. He's into the fight and begins to fight at his pace, rather that the first couple of rounds when Provodnikov was dictating to him based on those huge power shots he landed repeatedly. And the longer the fight goes, the better it is for Tim Bradley. Always? Every night? Yes, and in this particular fight, it gives him the opportunity to work the rust off. Because he has to be rusty off of a 10-month layoff. Bradley has made some adjustments to take some of the sting off Provodnikov's punches. On the inside--he gets inside the power a little bit, Roy, it looks like, and then on the outside, he keeps his distance. And he's making Provodnikov keep his hands at home by throwing the small pitty-pat punches... which is very smart for Tim Bradley. [Crowd cheers] Good right hand for Bradley. Oh, good hook for Bradley. Good left hook! Bradley's playing with fire when he goes to the corner like that. You got to realize, too, though, Bradley has a very apparent win advantage right now, so his punches have to be having some effect on Provodnikov. I think he's slowing Provodnikov down round to round. He's doing it with body shots, with greater activity, with carefully chosen shots upstairs, fighting much smarter than he did in the first couple of rounds. Much smarter. He's fighting with the typical Timothy Bradley will that just refuses to give. And refuses to lose. Nobody told Provodnikov it was going to be this hard. It's like he's in there with a termite that won't stop biting. Ha ha ha! A series of uppercuts by Bradley as they once again go into a phone booth the way the first couple of rounds were fought. Right hand lands again for Provodnikov. Good shot. Real good hook to the body, and Provodnikov is hurt from that punch. Hurt him bad. His right elbow is now planted down there. [Crowd chanting "Bradley"] And he visibly kind of deflated when the shot landed. Yeah, he did. RUSSELL: Stop at the bell. We've seen a strong rally by Timothy Bradley... [Bell rings] in rounds 3, 4, and 5 after he placed himself in severe jeopardy in rounds one and two. Earlier tonight, 22-year-old prospect Oscar Valdez from Nogales, Mexico, fought super bantam weight Carlos Gonzalez. [Crowd cheering] This was a 4-round fight. And Valdez dominated it all the way, despite the flowing blond locks of Carlos Gonzalez. Valdez and his flat top were thoroughly in charge, and he continued his unbeaten record en route to possible bigger exposure somewhere down the road. ROACH: Bob and weave. Bob and weave. Gain that momentum with that big overhand right and come back with the left hook. [Man speaking Russian] You got to catch him when he's punching with you, OK? [Whistle blows] JONES: Here you see Timothy Bradley landing one of my favorite combinations-- left hook to the head, then down to the body. Not many fighters throw that punch, and usually the guy is not ready or expecting that body shot off of the head shot. LAMPLEY: Bradley, in the fifth round, threw 118 punches after he had thrown more than 100 in the preceding round. He landed 47 of them. Provodnikov was 19 of 54. So Timothy Bradley, after a relatively slow start tonight, has put on a show in the last couple of rounds, throwing more than 100 punches in both rounds, and landing close to 50. Something else Timothy Bradley is starting to do in this round is step around Provodnikov just enough to keep Provodnikov's hands at home, as you say, Roy. Yep, and to keep them from setting so easily on his hard punches. Good body shot. Timothy Bradley's wife Kathleen and his mother-- or excuse me-- His wife Monica and his mother Kathleen were seated at ringside. You caught a glimpse of them at the end of the first round. Since then they have left their front-row seats and disappeared from where they were sitting in the arena. Maybe it was a little chilly, or maybe it was a little violent. We'll see if we can find out. I think it was a little violent. Oh, good shot. RUSSELL: Don't push. Well, perhaps somebody should go find Mom and wife and say, "Hey, as of round 6, all is well." You're exactly right. Bradley has restored order in the fight. RUSSELL: No elbows. KELLERMAN: He has. He's taken over the fight, but Provodnikov remains dangerous. He's throwing some hard, hard shots. But just the sheer activity level, Bradley's ability to throw and throw and throw... is wearing Provodnikov down. It sure is. When Evander Holyfield was in his prime, you hit him, it hurt him, you'd see that mouthpiece come out, and that meant you were in trouble. Ha ha ha! And Tim Bradley is the same kind of guy. Good body work. Right on the belt line. Now Timothy Bradley is boxing very smartly. Here comes Provodnikov again! And he caught Bradley with that right hand again, and Timothy Bradley reaches out and holds on. He's hurt again. Yeah. His back was to us. He's hurt bad. You can't see what landed. He's hurt bad. But he looks like he did in that second round. Oh! Another right hand, and another right hand! You don't need to be trained like this-- Look at this! Look at this! Provodnikov's trying to take his measure. I mean-- [Bell rings] Ha ha ha! Whoa! What is Timothy Bradley made of? Steel. Ha ha ha! Steel. LAMPLEY: They are putting on an amazing show. OK. Now, Ruslan... Freddy, how is your fighter doing? He's doing OK. He's OK? He's still in? All right. Starting to get a little attrition. I'm watching both. OK. Now here. Ruslan... JONES: Here you go. Provodnikov landed a beautiful left hook coming in. That hurt Timothy Bradley. That started the mayhem in this round. [Whistle blows] Once again, back to Desert Storm type of a war. You couldn't ask for a better fight. Do people understand? Bradley was out on his feet doing that. I'll tell you what. It's not the biggest crowd I've ever seen, but it's the luckiest crowd I've ever seen. There couldn't be a knowledgeable fight fan here who expected to see what he's seen so far. This has been an all-out war in what was expected to be a boxing match. Bradley was 38 out of 103 in that round; Provodnikov 34 out of 84. Each landed 31 power shots. In the last 20 seconds of that round, Provodnikov got himself back into the fight. Harold, how do you have it through 6? LEDERMAN: Jim, 3 rounds apiece, 57-57, all even. Ruslan Provodnikov definitely won the first two rounds, and secondly, he hurt Timothy Bradley in round 6 to win round 6. You know, Jim, what catches the eye of the judges is when Timothy Bradley gets hurt, his head snaps back. You know, I think you can see it. On the other hand, when Provodnikov gets hit with a right hand, his head don't snap back. He just stands there and takes it. RUSSELL: No, no, no, no, no. Great sixth round by Provodnikov. 3 rounds apiece. LAMPLEY: I'm being told by the producers in our truck that between rounds, Joel Diaz--Timothy Bradley's trainer-- threatened to stop the fight if Bradley wouldn't listen to him. He said, "You are not paying attention "to what I'm telling you, and if you keep taking "these risks and getting hit like that, I'll stop it." JONES: Well, he'd better get ready to stop it, because Bradley ain't listening, and it's not that he's really not listening. Provodnikov won't allow him to listen, because just as I was saying Bradley was fighting a smart fight and he was moving left and right to not allow Provodnikov to sit, he stopped moving, and then Provodnikov caught him with a left hook. Yeah, but I don't think for a second Diaz is gonna stop the fight, and I don't think Bradley thinks for a second that Diaz is gonna stop the fight. Nah. Diaz is right. Provodnikov might be able to stop it, if he can land another one of those crunching right hands or left hooks, which had had Bradley in trouble several times. Diaz is right, because fighters pay lip service. "They're gonna have to take me out on a stretcher to beat me." But Bradley means that, and he has way too much heart for one person. And he's taking awful punishment in this fight, even though he's very much in it. That's why we fight. We got whole heart... Well, it's a fan's dream. Harold Lederman's scorecard is even through 6. Both guys have had spectacular moments. Both faces are beginning to be marked. Both corners are working hard. Pat Russell is going back and forth across the ring between rounds looking at both fighters to see if one or the other is too compromised to keep going. It's a whale of a show. It was the first round, by the way, that Bradley almost got knocked out in. The first round, and he's been fighting like hell ever since. And the sixth round. And the second. Ha ha ha! Stop at the bell. Good jab. Good jab. [Bell rings] Cut! KELLERMAN: Bradley with blood on his face. ...Provodnikov down the stretch of that round with his jab. OK, Tim... ... That's the way you win the fight, dude. Tim. ... Take a deep breath. MAN: That's the way we need you to box now. SECOND MAN: Hey. How we doing, Tim? Yeah, I'm good. Tim. That's how we need you to box, Tim. OK. Wake up! Let's go! MAN: Wake up, champ. OK. Take a deep breath! Hold it in there! Hold it in there! OK. Tim. You're winning this fucking fight, dude. MAN: We need these 4 rounds. We win it... OK? You need-- You can't fucking get careless, dude. OK? This is it. Look. He's going for the kill now, OK? He's going for the kill. You cannot stay steady, dude. This guy needs to stay flat. You gotta get your distance. You cut the ring off, put him in--use that jab, right hand... [Whistle blows] [Speaking native language] LAMPLEY: You know what's remarkable about the kinds of power shot punishment that Provodnikov has laid on Timothy Bradley tonight, Roy, is Provodnikov moving up from 140 pounds. He's the guy who is new to the welterweight division here. JONES: Yeah, but he punches like a middleweight. Copy box numbers in the seventh. Bradley 18 of 73, Provodnikov 15 out of 36. 8 jabs connected for Bradley, and you saw that rally down the stretch of the round with the jab they probably wanted for it. He started out moving and jabbing good this round. So, obviously, he's listening to his corner. It's the movement that matters. When he stops and stands still, Provodnikov unloads. Now let's go to Max Kellerman, who is in Tim Bradley's corner with Joel Diaz. KELLERMAN: Joel, you were talking about stopping the fight in the corner between the previous rounds. Why? DIAZ: Well, he gets in there, he gets reckless. He got caught with a good punch, comes to the corner. You know, I noticed he was a little bit dazed. You know, he told me, "You know what? This guy's strong." I said, "Well, don't stay in ... exchange." So, now he's using a little bit more footwork. We notice he is strong, so now we're trying to use some more skill instead of power. He wanted to get in there and exchange with him, but no. He's too strong. So, now we have to use some angles on him. Would you really stop the fight knowing what Tim Bradley would do if you stopped the fight? You know what? I care for my fighter, and if I see that he's hurt, and if I see that he comes to the corner hurt, I will stop him before he gets in there and gets hurt in the next round. You like what you're seeing now? Yes. I will stop my fighter. If he comes to the corner and I see he's hurt, I will not throw him in there for him to get hurt again. But you want him to box this way now. Now I want him to box like that. I don't want him-- to let him sit. I want him to keep moving an angle and counter, counter off of him, go a little more. Thanks, Joel. LAMPLEY: A lot of the talking prior to this fight, a lot of the taunting and the competitive talk that was part of the buildup was done by the trainers. Freddie Roach and Joel Diaz. Freddie Roach was trying to get under Bradley's skin and make Bradley even more uncomfortable, in the vein of the criticism and the disapproval Bradley has experienced since the decision in the Pacquiao fight, and Joel Diaz responded by saying, "Well, Freddie Roach is done. He's washed up. His fighters don't win anymore." So, they probably won't be dining together anytime soon. Ha ha ha! Diaz and Roach. Tell you what-- Provodnikov is pretty swollen up now. His face is starting to show wear and tear from those punches from Timothy Bradley. Both eyes are still open and clear. He can see, but that left eye could conceivably swell up as the fight goes on. KELLERMAN: Tim may want to step around in that direction. Counterclockwise. [Bell rings] MAN: Listen. You need to show me you can win this fight. [Man speaking native language] You didn't lay hands... You took too many shots that round. Took too many shots that round. SECOND MAN: ...OK? Is he good? Ask him how he's feeling. I think that eye's gonna be OK, Freddie. You're opening up too wide, OK? OK, let's go, baby. OK? [Whistle blows] LAMPLEY: Remember, if you watched the first of our two fights tonight on World Championship Boxing, you saw Jessie Vargas win a close decision to Wale Omotoso because he threw and landed more punches. Single best way to get across with judges the way the sport is currently viewed. And Timothy Bradley right now is following the formula-- throwing and landing more punches, particularly in the last couple of rounds, as he tries to put distance between himself and Ruslan Provodnikov, who has come close on a few occasions to knocking him down or perhaps out. KELLERMAN: He did knock him out a couple of times. It's just that Bradley stayed on his feet and kept throwing punches. Call that a walking knockout, right? [Crowd chanting "Bradley"] Crowd is beginning to chant for Tim Bradley. How do you make new fans? Get whacked Get punished. So, courage, come back. JONES: The one thing Provodnikov has not done tonight is blows to the body. He hasn't hit Timothy Bradley's body much at all. And Bradley has hit his far more frequently. Because he's so strong... A big difference in the fight. Yeah, that's the smartest way to break a strong guy down, is to beat his body. Bradley just brought blood from Provodnikov's left eye. He might have opened up that eyelid, which you saw was... He did. He did. It's bleeding. Bleeding badly. That came from a Bradley right hand, and not a butt. And we heard Freddie Roach concerned that Provodnikov's taking too many punches. Provodnikov hasn't been really shaken in this fight other than with a body punch, it doesn't look like, but Bradley's hitting him a lot, and Freddie's concerned. And Provodnikov seemed to feel a sense of urgency now as the blood begins to flow from his left eye. Hard! Punch. Minute to go in round 9. There's a body shot by Provodnikov. There have been too few of them. They want to stand by Timothy Bradley, but he just hurt Provodnikov. He just hurt Provodnikov. Man. That's why Provodnikov's dangerous, Roy. He hurt Provodnikov really bad there, though. That blood is really starting to spurt out of the eye, and Provodnikov is hurt but still throwing bombs like that one. Big left hook by Provodnikov. And a right hand. Just business with the left hook as Bradley backs away. I got it. Stop punching right there. Stop. Take a step back. Stop at the bell. LAMPLEY: I'll tell you what-- I don't think he's gonna win this fight. But who wants next with Ruslan Provodnikov? KELLERMAN: He might win this fight. [Bell rings] It's up in the air still. That is a badly-hurt left eye. [Crowd chanting "Bradley"] [Men speaking native language] LAMPLEY: Well, you saw that cut last week on Tavoris Cloud, and there it is on Provodnikov-- above the left eye, right in the middle of the eyelid. Very difficult cut to stop. MAN: Just do your job. At the end, if the doc wants to look, I'll have him come up, we'll go on T.O., OK? OK. ...in the corner. Be all right. [Chatter] I appreciate that, coach. MAN: We're in tough, OK? [Whistle blows] [Chatter] LAMPLEY: Pat Russell has decided that the cut is OK and the fight will continue. MAN: Keep boxing, dude. [Bell rings] LAMPLEY: Harold, how do you have it through 9? LEDERMAN: OK, Jim. 87, 84, 6 rounds to 3, Timothy Bradley. He's won 3 rounds in a row. He's busted a guy up. 6 to 3, Bradley. LAMPLEY: And now Max Kellerman is in the corner with Freddie Roach, so, let's go over there and see what Freddie thinks about Provodnikov's progress. KELLERMAN: Freddie, what do you see in this fight right now? ROACH: We're hitting this guy once in a while and hurting him, but the thing is, he's outscoring us, outboxing us right now, and I'm close to stopping the fight. You're close to stopping it? Is that because you feel your fighter is being damaged? Yeah, he's taking a lot of shots and I'm a little worried about him. But I mean, every time I think about it, he comes back with a combination and he puts himself back in the fight. Are you worried about the cut or about the punches to the head he's taking? The punches. Too many punches. Thanks, Freddie. JONES: And I agree with Freddie on that. LAMPLEY: You agree with Freddie? Yes. The guy's starting to take a little bit too many punches. At first, Bradley really couldn't hurt him, but in that last round, Timothy Bradley hit him with an overhand right that hurt him really, really bad. Oh, good body shot by Provodnikov. Really good shot. Just goes to show Bradley's the guy who's been staggering around the ring at various times and in Provodnikov's corner, they're thinking of stopping it, just like in Bradley's corner. This is a brutal fight. High punishment fight for both fighters. I don't know if Provodnikov knew that he signed up for this, though. Well, Provodnikov had many chances. Chances he created for himself with big punches. When the fight is over, we're going to go back to the first round, watch the action with our rules interpretation expert Steve Weisfeld, and ask Steve whether he thinks Pat Russell should've ruled a knockdown in the first round. Not, it appears, that it would've ultimately influenced the outcome, because Bradley is pulling away on the scorecards now, or so you would think. KELLERMAN: Whether or not he ruled, I'm not sure about the scorecards. If I were a judge, I'd have given Provodnikov a 10-8 round, clearly. Whether or not he goes down, he was badly hurt. Yup. That's an extra point, in my view. Right hand lands for Provodnikov. Doesn't have quite as much mustard on those shots, as was the case in the first few rounds, though. No, but Provodnikov has some heart. Oh, they both do. Big left hook for Provodnikov. We knew Timothy Bradley did, but we didn't know Provodnikov had one, too. [Bell rings] A sensational fight in Carson, California. [Men speaking native language] OK. Ruslan. We need to knock this out to win. [Man speaking native language] OK? Now, you go out there and you show me you can do that this round right now. Show me you can do that or I'm gonna stop the fight. [Speaking native language] OK? Now... [Chatter] Now, Ruslan, yeah, bite down hard. Bite down hard. Let's go for it. All right? Every time you hit him, you hurt him. Let's hurt him. [Whistle blows] [Chatter] Come on. MAN: Let's go, let's go, let's go! ...baby. Go! Come on! [Bell rings] LAMPLEY: So, Freddie Roach issues a mandate to his fighter-- you have to show me in this round that you're worthy of staying in the fight. KELLERMAN: You mentioned win or lose, who wants next with Provodnikov, Jim? Fight fans. Fight fans want next with Provodnikov. Absolutely. Bring him back. He heard Freddie and he's trying to go to work. JONES: And Timothy Bradley very smartly attacked his body right away. Right, smartly, because when a guy comes out with renewed vigor, the fastest way to take it out of him is go to his body. Right back to that body. RUSSELL: Wait up. Let go, Ruslan. JONES: Good body shot. LAMPLEY: More body shots by Bradley. Hammering Provodnikov around the waistband. Trying to take the last few ounces of steam out of Provodnikov. Oh, good shot. Big left hook by Provodnikov. Bradley grabs and holds again. He better get out off those ropes and out of that corner. Oof. This is where Bradley gets in trouble when he starts training like this. Yeah, it is, but I don't know if Provodnikov really can hurt him anymore. Huh. KELLERMAN: I wouldn't doubt that Provodnikov can. He's consistently shown the ability to do it throughout this fight. Yeah, but I think Bradley's starting to hurt him more than he's hurting Bradley now. Blood begins to flow from the left eye again. Although cut man David Martinez did an excellent job between rounds. Right hand on the top for Provodnikov. Even now as Bradley gets the better of it, it feels to me as though Provodnikov's hurting Bradley with everything-- jabs and everything. No, he's not hurting him at all now, because he's hitting high on the head. The punches high on the head do not bother Bradley much at all. It's the ones right on the chin that are bothering him. And Provodnikov has not hit him on the chin this complete round. Moving Bradley pretty good with all those shots. That's another way Bradley compares to Evander Holyfield. Big skull. [Bell rings] Come on, dude. [Chatter] LAMPLEY: Let's see if Freddie Roach will let Provodnikov come out for the 12th. [Chatter] OK, you show me you can hurt him. [Man speaking native language] You hurt him, you stay on him, OK? [Speaking native language] MAN: Touch them up at the end. [Speaking native language] Baby. He's gonna try to knock you out. He's gonna try to knock you out... so you better fuckin' stay sharp. Hold on to him, OK, hold him, and move. [Whistle blows] Bash the shit out of him, dude. [Chatter] RUSSELL: Come here. Come here. Come here. [Bell rings] Both of you. Touch them up, buddy. All right, let's go. Box. LAMPLEY: Copy box numbers entering the last round. Bradley's landed 337 of 940 shots. Provodnikov 203 out of 611. So, Bradley has the numerical advantages. Probably has the lead on the scorecards, in my personal view. You heard Joel Diaz tell Timothy Bradley he's gonna come try to knock you out. You need to show him that he can't. KELLERMAN: Provodnikov's also showing the ability to hurt Bradley on the way in. Not just when Bradley's exchanging, like this. Good left hook by Bradley. Amazing display of heart by both fighters. Won't see many better fights. Tim Bradley is the definition of a champion. JONES: You better believe it. And if Provodnikov wants to win this fight, he's gotta be a champion right now. Yup. Well, Provodnikov may not look like a champion tomorrow, but he's sure gonna look like a fighter. [Crowd chanting "Bradley"] And the crowd begins to chant "Bradley, Bradley." He's won some fans here tonight, that's for sure. Body shots by Bradley. Provodnikov nails him upstairs. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no... KELLERMAN: We've seen Bradley survive what should have been multiple knockouts in this fight. You OK? Change his strategy. Brawl when he had to, box when he had to. Show multi-dimension to his game. Just an amazing fighter. Oh. LAMPLEY: Big left hook by Provodnikov. He got him again. Bradley over ... Somehow stayed up. Whoa, whoa! Stop! I got it. JONES: The heart of a champion, son. KELLERMAN: Well, that was a left hook of a champion from Provodnikov. Knocked Bradley all the way across the ring. LAMPLEY: A right hand by Provodnikov. Bradley better hold here. 30 seconds to go! He better hold. Bradley reaches out and grabs. His legs are almost gone. One shot could put him down here. And out. There's a right hand that lands again. One more time. Better hold him. Provodnikov is dead tired, though. If the ropes keep Bradley up... He might-- That's a knockdown. That is a knockdown. But the clock is going to bring an end to the fight. If Bradley can get up and stay up. Hey. Come here. You all right? Let's go. ... [Bell rings] KELLERMAN: Unbelievable. LAMPLEY: It's a "Rocky" movie. That was "Rocky." JONES: Wow. What a spectacular fight. What an amazing performance, and the level of mutual respect has to be going through the roof for these two fighters. What a war. Was that knockdown enough to win Provodnikov a decision? Provodnikov knocks Bradley down in the last round, and narrows the scorecards with a 10-8 round. Anything is possible. All right, very quickly, before we get the final decision. Let's go back to Round 1 and quickly look at what happened in Round 1 to see whether Provodnikov might have deserved a knockdown in that round as well. Steve Weisfeld is our rules interpretation expert. Steve, take us through it. WEISFELD: Jim, you see that Bradley got hit by a big right hand. There's a delay here. And a few seconds later, Bradley goes down and the referee certainly could have ruled that a knockdown, but he didn't, and a judge can't call it a knockdown on his own. I actually scored the first two rounds 10-9 for Provodnikov and I'd be surprised if all 3 judges didn't score the first two rounds for Provodnikov. Yes, but Steve, you didn't score either of these two rounds 10-8? I agree, actually, with Harold. If you look at the totality of the first two rounds, I don't think there was enough to score 10-8 for Provodnikov. I think Bradley did enough to bring it to 10-9. And, Steve, let me press you on one point. You said Pat Russell could've ruled that a knockdown. In your view, should he have ruled it a knockdown? Yeah, I think there was enough causation. I think that he certainly could have ruled it a knockdown, yes. So, then, you're saying he took a point away from Provodnikov that would've been his. If-- Now here's Round 12. Let's take a look at what happened here. Thank you very much, Steve Weisfeld. There's the right hand that knocked Bradley back into the ropes and started the big rally in Round 12. There's the left hook that knocked Bradley into the other ropes, and in both of those instances, the referee had the option of ruling that the ropes had kept Bradley up, and then eventually, Bradley's knee went to the canvas and that clearly became the knockdown. Harold, how did you score the fight? LEDERMAN: OK, Jim, I got it 8 rounds to 4, 115, 112, Timothy Bradley. You know, he had too big a lead. You know, the knockdown in the twelfth round just didn't give him enough points to catch up. 8-4, Timothy Bradley, but Jim, I gotta throw in a comment. Pat Russell blew the call. It was a knockdown in the first round. You cannot deny it. Absolutely a knockdown. LAMPLEY: All right. We're gonna go to Lupe Contreras and find out who won the fight right now. [Bell rings] CONTRERAS: Ladies and gentlemen, after completing the scheduled 12 rounds, we go to the scorecard to determine a winner. Judges Dunkin and Cantu turned in identical scorecards of 114 to 113. And Judge Geis, Senior scores it 115 to 112. All 3 in favor of the winner. By way of unanimous decision... and still WBO welterweight champion of the world, Desert Storm, Timothy Bradley. [Bell rings] All right, Pat. LAMPLEY: Well, let's take a look at the copy box numbers and generally speaking, these numbers are gonna show you why Bradley was ultimately the preference of the judges. He landed 129 more punches. He threw 324 more punches, throwing exactly 1,000 punches in the fight. He landed at a higher connect percentage. Power shots. Bradley landed 32 more, threw 3 less, landed at the higher connect percentage. Jabs not a very big factor in this fight. This was not a boxing match. This was an all-out war. And if you take a look at the punch zone graphic, we'll show you where the punches landed on both fighters, and one huge difference you'll see here-- Ruslan Provodnikov landed only 25 body punches. Timothy Bradley was far more disciplined about going to the body, and with those 69 body connects, he helped to keep Provodnikov off him in the middle rounds and ultimately, that's as big a factor as anything in winning the fight. Let's go to Max Kellerman in the ring with Tim Bradley. Tim, what did you just tell me? Ha ha! About fighting with a what? What did I say? I forgot. Right. You told me you were concussed early in that fight. Yeah, yeah. I think I got a concussion. I know I do. Without a doubt. This guy, this guy is a power puncher. He's a great warrior, and you know what? I took my hat off to him. He'll beat any 140, ... 147-pounder out there. I'm telling you, he's the real deal. Referee Pat Russell came up to me after the fight, said it was an honor to ref the fight. It certainly was an honor to watch the fight. Did you come out fast because you had some statement to make after the Pacquiao fight? You know what? I came out fast because I wanted to jump on him, you know. I didn't want him to get in control and just control the fight early. I wanted to control the action and work at my pace. He started to really nail you with the right hand and you think that was-- you were concussed in the first round from that right hand? I don't know. One of them punches in one of the rounds... What makes you say that? I mean, you're not-- how do you know? Why would you say that? Because I'm dizzy right now. Ha ha ha! I'm dizzy right now. You were throwing punches, it looked like. I thought you were out on your feet a couple of times in that fight. Can you describe what happens in those moments when you appear to be basically knocked out and yet you're punching back? Well, the warrior instinct started come in, you know, just hard determination, the will to win. Even though I got rocked, I still fight hard, you know. I just come right back, you know. That's just the warrior in me. In the 12th round, he hurts you badly. It was a very close fight. It could've won him the round if you go down. And you didn't hold right away. What was going on in your mind at that moment? Damn, I gotta win every single round. I gotta fight hard and try to win these rounds, because I know it's a real close fight. Tim, congratulations. That's a champion, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much. Ruslan... just a fantastic performance. First, it was a close fight. What do you think of the decision? [Speaking native language] [Speaking native language] You saw everything. Everybody saw what I did in the ring. It's up to the judges but I think I did everything in there to prove myself. Freddie in the corner was thinking of stopping the fight a couple times because you were taking so many punches. He appeared--and admitted that he was badly hurt several times. How badly were you hurt? [Speaking native language] [Speaking native language] Everybody saw. I did not feel his punches. I was going after him the whole 12 rounds. He felt my punches and everybody knows that. I didn't feel his punches at all. Ruslan, congratulations and I'm sure we'll be seeing you again very soon. Still unbeaten, but maybe a little bit the worse for wear, Bradley now finally gets the kind of big-money matchup he was looking for and didn't get when instead, he ran into Provodnikov. That'll happen October 12, when he faces Juan Manuel Marquez live on HBO Pay-Per-View in Las Vegas, and we'll bring it to you on HBO Pay-Per-View. Don't miss it. ♪ ANNOUNCER: This has been a presentation of HBO Sports.