By Yuri Tarantin

This past Saturday night at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York, junior welterweight contender John Molina pulled off an upset when he outboxed Ruslan Provodnikov to win a twelve round unanimous decision.

Molina stuck to a game plan of boxing and used his jab as the main weapon to keep himself ahead. Molina threw nearly 1,110 total punches, including 643 jabs compared to just 265 for Provodnikov, who failed to close the range.

The event was heavily promoted as it was Provodnikov's televised debut on Showtime. The handlers for the 'Siberian Rocky,' and Showtime, were already looking ahead to a potential fight with Adrien Broner in the fall.

Molina spoiled all of those plans when Provodnikov seemed a bit flat in the fight and didn't have the same pop on his punches.

Some critics were out in full force, claiming that Provodnikov mentally collapsed and have up when he was unable to change the tide of the match. Provodnikov was heavily offended by those comments and says he did everything in his power to win the fight, but it wasn't his night and he gives all of the necessary credit to Molina for the work he put in to get the victory.

"I do not want to make excuses, but since some people began to write that I gave up in the fight - I just want to say that everyone who has ever seen my fights knows that I give everything of myself in each battle, so I never disappoint my fans, my team, and my country. Anyone can have their opinions on me and my fights. In the fight with Molina I did everything I could that night," Provodnikov stated.

Yuri Tarantin covers boxing for Allboxing.ru.