By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he’d like to match newly crowned WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov (23-2, 16 KO’s) against 40-year-old recently beaten Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) or possibly Manny Pacquiao next. However, trainer Freddie Roach, who trains both Pacquiao and Provodnikov, is against he idea of Pacquiao and Provodnikov facing each other because they’re friends.
I’m sure that Provodnikov might like to speak for himself when it comes to whether he gets a chance to fight Pacquiao or not rather than having the already wealthy Roach rule out the fight. It’s easy for Roach to say no to a Pacquiao-Provodnikov fight because he’s made a ton of money as a trainer over the years, but Provodnikov hasn’t made the big cash yet and if he can’t get a fight against Pacquiao, then he may never get a big payday. There aren’t any other huge names for Top Rank at 140 or 147 that would give Provodnikov a huge payday like the one he’d get if he could face Pacquiao.
Arum told the Manila Standard “An interesting fight would be between Provodnikov, who comes forward, and Juan Manuel Marquez, a great counter puncher.”
When asked if Arum would be open to the idea of Provodnikov fighting his No.1 fighter Manny Pacquiao, Arum said “Why not?”
It seems that Arum is more interested in matching Provodnikov against Marquez than putting Provodnikov in with Pacquiao. It makes sense because Marquez needs an important win to redeem himself after his loss to Tim Bradley this month, and a victory for Marquez over Provodnikov would give him that opportunity. Provodnikov wouldn’t run from Marquez the way that Bradley did, so it would give Marquez a lot of opportunities to land his counter shots because Provodnikov would give him plenty of opportunities. It would still be a very difficult fight for Marquez to win because Provodnikov has a lot of power, and he throws a lot of punches. Unless Marquez was able to land something really big or get a cut stoppage, he could find himself losing to Provodnikov.
Just because Arum wants to match Provodnikov against Marquez doesn’t mean that both of the fighters will say yes to the fight. I’m sure Provodnikov’s promoter would like to see him face Bradley, Pacquiao or get a rematch against Mike Alvarado. Provodnikov stopped Alvarado in the 10th round last Saturday night in Denver, Colorada.
A rematch between them would be a fairly big fight and it’s one that Provodnikov would have a good chance of winning. It’s a better match-up for Provodnikov than him facing the counter punching Marquez.
Provodnikov has the kind of power to give either Marquez and Pacquiao a lot of problems because those two fighters are aging and it might not be good for them to face a slugger like Provodnikov at this point in their careers. Pacquiao has got his hands filled as it is next month in his November 23rd fight against Brandon Rios. Pacquiao might not even win that fight. But if he does beat Rios, he’s likely to absorb a great deal of punishment in the process. There might not be much left of Pacquiao if he were have to face someone like Provodnikov in his next fight after that. I’m sure Arum doesn’t want Pacquiao used up by Provodnikov.
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