Ruslan Provodnikov vs. Mike Alvarado possible October 19th in Denver

By Boxing News - 07/10/2013 - Comments

alvarado332By Allan Fox: A match-up between WBO interim light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-1, 23 KO’s) and Ruslan Provodnikov (22-2, 15 KO’s) is possible for October 19th in Denver for a fight that could be televised on HBO, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is working on putting the fight together.

It’s still early to know whether he can pull this fight off, but it’s looking good thus far. One thing that isn’t known is what weight class the fight will take place at.

Provodnikov fights at welterweight, whereas Alvarado is still fighting at 140 despite being huge for that weight. It’s probable that Provodnikov would be asked to come down in weight to fight Alvarado rather than him coming up in weight, especially given that the fight will be taking place in Denver.

Rafael said on his twitter: “Arum also told me that he is close to a deal for @MileHighMike303 [Alvarado] to fight @RuslanProvod on Oct. 19 in Denver on @HBOboxing.”

The Alvarado-Provodnikov fight has been talked about for months since the Russian Provodnikov lost a narrow 12 round unanimous decision to WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley last March. It was a close fight, and had there been another round or two, Provodnikov, #3 WBO, likely would have stopped Bradley. As it is, he gave him a real beating in dropping him in the 12th and staggering him several times in the fight.

Alvarado beat Brandon Rios by a 12 round unanimous decision last March in their rematch. Alvarado, 32, made adjustments from their first fight in October and chose to use a lot of movement mixed in with the slugging that he was doing. It worked well because Alvarado was able to get out of the way of a lot of Rios’s big shots to keep him from trying to wear him down with pressure.

Alvarado needs more important wins for him to be considered as a future opponent for Arum’s #1 fighter Manny Pacquiao. A victory over Provodnikov could help Alvarado get put in the position to eventually get put in with Pacquiao.



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