By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says that WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov (23-2, 16 KO’s) is a future candidate for Arum’s No. 1 money fighter Manny Pacquiao once Provodnikov builds up more of a name for himself by fighting more frequently on HBO. Right now, Arum doesn’t see the 30-year-old Provodnikov as being well known enough with the casual boxing fans to put him in with Pacquiao.
Although Provodnikov’s name was mentioned in the running for Pacquiao’s next fight on April 12th, it seems that Provondikov was never under any serious consideration for that fight by Arum. He was just a name being mentioned, but not a serious candidate. Arum says he had his eyes on Tim Bradley as the guy that he wanted to match against Pacquiao from the start.
No doubt, Arum is remembering the 900,000 pay-per-view buys that the Pacquiao-Bradley fight brought in back in June of 2012, and while those were poor numbers compared to what Pacquiao had been bringing in before that, those numbers are looking very good to Arum now that Pacquiao’s last fought against Brandon Rios drew just 475,000 PPV buys.
“He [Provodnikov] needs a little more exposure,” Arum said to Sports Illustrated. “Boxing fans know him and the general public has never hard of him, even though he is an exciting fighter. Let him fight on HBO a couple of more times. He’s a candidate down the road to face Pacquiao, for sure.”
There’s talk that Provodnikov will fight the recently beaten Brandon Rios next. By beating Rios, Provodnikov will help make more of a name for himself. Of course, the question how does Rios get a title shot against Provodnikov when he’s lost his last two fights to Pacquiao and Mike Alvarado and he’s not even ranked in the top 15 in the light welterweight division. Letting Rios get a title shot off of consecutive losses would send a wrong message to the sport. You’ve got plenty of more deserving fighters than Rios who should be getting a title shot against Provodnikov rather than a guy like Rios with back to back defeats
Arum thinks that Bradley will bring in more fans for the rematch with Pacquiao than he did in their fight in 2012. Arum said “The wins over Provodnikov and [Juan Manuel] Marquez have made Bradley a much more marketable fight. It has made the rematch a more appealing fight.”
I believe Arum is really hoping that fans will be more eager to see Pacquiao and Bradley fight again, but I don’t think they will. If anything, Bradley’s wins over Provodnikov and Marquez has hurt him more than helped him. Provodnikov knocked Bradley down in the 12th round and him hurt several times in the fight. There’s no way you can look at the Bradley-Provodnikov fight and come away with it being impressed with Bradley. He was talking like he punch drunk afterwards when being interviewed by HBO. And in Bradley’s win over Marquez last year, Bradley ran from the 40-year-old for 12 rounds, making the fight less than thrilling to watch. I don’t see fans being being interested in seeing Pacquiao fight Bradley again, but I can understand why Arum is making the fight. He literally doesn’t have anyone else left in his Top Rank stable to put in with Pacquiao other than Bradley. After Bradley, it gets really bleak for Arum with him having to put in Provodnikov, Rios again, Mike Alvarado, Mikey Garcia and Terence Crawford.
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