By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov (24-4, 17 KOs) says negotiations are taking place for a fight between him and Britain’s Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) for a fight that would take place in November.
What’s interesting is that Khan is saying that the talk of a fight between them is not true, and that talks are taking place for a fight against Manny Pacquiao. But if that’s true, then Khan will be sitting outside of the ring waiting for the Pacquiao fight for a long, long time.
Khan, 28, hasn’t fought since last May, when he barely beat Chris Algieri in a life and death struggle. If Khan doesn’t fight again until a fight against Pacquiao, then he’ll have been outside of the ring for 9 to 10 months. That’s just ridiculous.
Khan already lost a year of his career between April 2013 and May 2014 in waiting for a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. that never transpired. If Khan sits and waits until February or March of next year before fighting Pacquiao, he’d have basically lost another year of his career.
I can’t say that’s the smartest thing to do, especially with all the new blood that is coming up the ranks in the 147lb division. Khan is missing out on his 15 minutes of fame by not fighting.
“Nah, complete nonsense, mate,” Khan said to ESPN.com about a fight between him and #4 WBO Provodnikov. “We going for [Manny] Pacquiao. In talks. We deal with Top Rank. Al [Haymon] is cool with it if it makes sense for his fighter.”
So Khan is saying there are no negotiations for a fight between him and Provodnikov, but that’s not what we’re hearing from Provodnikov. He’s saying there is negotiations. Could it be that negotiations are going on between the two fighter’s management and Khan is completely in the dark about it?
“My team is taking care of negotiations,” Provodnikov said about a fight against Khan via skysports.com. “I’m ready to fight him. My team has to make it happen and I’m ready to fight him in Dubai or here. My team knows the details. The fights supposed to take place in America. Brandon Rios didn’t want the fight. We were trying to get Jessie Vargas. We’re not sure if he wants the fight. Obviously, Bradley doesn’t want the fight. He said that out loud. Amir Khan is a great fight. Right now what’s in the news Amir Khan really doesn’t want the fight either. I’m hoping the fight happens. It was being discussed for November,” Provodnikov said.
It makes sense for Khan to fight Provodnikov in November, because what else is Khan going to do while he waits for Pacquiao to stop licking his wounds from his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. from last May. It does not make sense at all for Khan to sit outside of the ring until the Pacquiao fight takes place next year, and I don’t even think it will. Khan needs to keep busy and the best way for that to happen is for him to fight Provodnikov.
I could definitely see why Khan might not want to fight a dangerous puncher like Provodnikov. That would be like Khan fighting Marcos Maidana again, but without a referee to pull Maidana off of him while he’s trying to finish him off in the 10th.
Provodnikov would potentially ruin a fight for Khan against Pacquiao by knocking him clean out. I think for that reason, Khan might not be interested in facing Provodnikov. If Khan does fight before the end of the year, it’ll likely be another weak puncher like the guys he’s been fighting since he was knocked out by Danny Garcia in 2012. Khan has faced five weak punchers since that loss.
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