(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Scott Gilfoid: Well, we could be seeing #1 WBC, #2 WBA, #4 WBO welterweight contender Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) facing former WBO 140lb champion Ruslan Provodnikov (24-4, 17 KOs) in the coming months. According to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, a fight between Khan and the 31-year-old Provodnikov is possible. It’s not exactly a fight that many boxing fans would want to see for a couple of reasons.
First of all, Provodnikov isn’t a welterweight, he’s a light welterweight. Secondly, Provodnikov has lost 3 out of his last 5 fights. I mean, he was beaten by Khan’s last opponent Chris Algieri in June of 2014. Thirdly, Provodnikov was beaten in his last fight by Lucas Matthysse last April in losing a 12 round majority decision. I don’t care if the fight was close.
Provodnikov still lost the fight, and that’s reason enough for me not to want to see him as Khan’s next opponent. As such, it would seem to be a downward move for Khan if he does face Provodnikov.
”Fight being talked about for @SHOsports fourth quarter: Ruslan Provodnikov-@AmirKingKhan. Sign me up for that one,” Mannix said on his Twitter.
I would prefer to see Khan fighting welterweights unless he’s decided to move back down to the 140lb division. Khan hasn’t said anything about wanting to move back down to light welterweight, so I’m assuming that he’s still going to be campaigning as a 147 pounder rather than a light welterweight.
If Khan does face Provodnikov, this would be Khan’s second consecutive fight against a light welterweight. In Khan’s last fight, he beat light welterweight Chris Algieri by a 12 round unanimous decision last May. It’s unclear why Khan’s adviser selected Algieri, because he was coming off of a one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao in his previous fight.
Despite the mess of losses in his last five fights, Provodnikov is still ranked #4 WBO, #8 WBA in the 140lb division.
Khan still hasn’t faced a tough test at welterweight yet since moving up to the division. He’s beaten Julio Diaz, Luis Collazo, Devon Alexander and Algieri. It’s unclear what the holdup is with Khan. In the past, he had the excuse that he was waiting around hoping to get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., but now that Mayweather has made it abundantly clear that he plans on retiring after his next fight on Saturday against Andre Berto, there is no reason for Khan to continue to pad his record with easy opponents.
It’s time that Khan starts testing himself against the best in the welterweight division by facing the likes of Shawn Porter, Marcos Maidana, Errol Spence, Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman. If all Khan is going to be doing is fighting light welterweights like Algieri and Provodnikov, then he needs to move down in weight and target the likes of Viktor Postol, Adrien Broner, Terence Crawford and Cesar Cuenca for one of the titles in that division. That would make the most sense because if you’re fighting guys from that division over and over again, it must mean that you want to fight down there, right?
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