Agreed. Brutal, brutal fight though. But yeah, I think Chino stops Provo late. Stops him on his feet, most likely. Both of them would have KO'd Rios.
Yeah- Chino never showed the same facial damage that Provo did either. Not quite. And he did two hard 12 rounders with Floyd and never got outclassed, whereas Floyd would have beat the shit out of Provo. I think it's brutal up to the point that Provos face starts to fall off, maybe the 5th, 6th round.
Maidana was more dynamic than prod, who was more of a plodder. This would prove the difference in a war
I bring up this matchup because it was like 9-10 years ago that we were discussing who would win a tourney between Maidana, Matthysse, Provo, and Rios. At the time, Matthysse was viewed as the best of the four. Time proved that Maidana was the best of that group - followed by Matthysse, Provo 3rd, and Rios the weakest link.
Mathysse was the best boxer by far, but he wasn't the best fighter, and not good enough of a boxer to stay out of a fight for long enough. The more I look back at it, the more I think Provo was shit.........a fat 140lb Gatti with a better chin.
There was a Korean super flyweight named Hyung Chul Lee who reminded me of Provo stylewise. Other than him, I can't think of another guy with style similarities. If prime Provo were around at 140 today, I see him losing to Taylor and Prograis, but he beats up Ramirez.
Oh yes he would of course, but he reminded me a lot of Gatti, in that he was face first. Provodikov was boiling down from 160 to 140, whereas Gatti, in his youth, was boiling down from 150 to 130. Provo was a division bigger than Gatti and much stronger.
