By Chris Williams: If Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wants newly crowned WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov (23-2, 16 KO’s) to fight his stable fighter Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) then he’s probably going to have to open up his wallet wide and dig deep to find enough change to make it appealing to Provodnikov to take the fight because he’s not interested in facing Alvarado again.
Provodnikov feels his win was convincing enough to suggest that there’s no point in a rematch between them. Instead of fighting Alvarado again, Provodnikov would like to face either Manny Pacquiao or Tim Bradley. Unfortunately, those are two names that Arum isn’t mentioning for Provodnikov to fight right now.
Provodnikov told Joseph Herron at Eastsideboxing.com “I don’t think that fight [Alvarado], the way it went, I don’t think we need another fight with him.”
The name that Arum is mentioning for Provodnikov is Juan Manuel Marquez. By matching Marquez against the much less popular Provodnikov, Arum would be giving Marquez a big chance to make boxing fans forget about his recent loss to Tim Bradley while at the same time giving Marquez a chance to pick up the WBO 140 lb. strap.
Arum could then match Marquez against Pacquiao, if Marquez wants that fight, or against Bradley in a rematch. Fans would then show a lot more interest in seeing Marquez fight either of those guys. Right now if Arum tried to make a Marquez-Pacquiao or Marquez-Bradley fight, fans wouldn’t be all that excited due to how poor Marquez looked in the Bradley fight. But if Marquez can redeem himself with a victory over Provodnikov, then Arum can move ahead with putting him in with Pacquiao or Bradley, provided that Marquez is interested in either of those fights.
Top Rank has an option on Provodnikov’s next fight, according to Dan Rafael. That means that we’re not going to see Provodnikov fight any of Golden Boy Promotion’s fighters, such as Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson or Lucas Matthysse next. What that boils down to is Provodnikov having to choose between one of Arum’s stable fighters, and it doesn’t look like he’s got a lot of options. If Bradley and Pacquiao aren’t on the table, then about the only thing that Provodnikov will be able to get is Marquez, Alvarado or maybe Brandon Rios, if Rios gets beaten by Pacquiao in their fight next month on November 23rd in Macao, China. What we’re talking about here is Provodnikov fighting guys coming off of losses rather than wins. I don’t blame Provodnikov if he’s not excited about that, because facing Bradley or Pacquiao are much better fights for him right now than taking on a beaten Marquez or a possibly beaten Rios. Provodnikov’s options will be even more limited if Rios beats Pacquiao. If that happens, Provodnikov won’t get Pacquiao or Rios. It’ll basically be Alvarado, Marquez or nothing.
I don’t blame Arum if he never matched Provodnikov against Pacquiao, because he punches too hard for him and he might end up knocking Pacquiao out the same way that Marquez did. I don’t think Arum will take the chance of letting Pacquiao fight Provodnikov.
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