By Steve Kim
A full slate of fights was announced this afternoon by Showtime, and one of them includes a fighter who had previously been a consistent presence on the rival network, HBO - Ruslan Provodnikov.
"We made a deal with Showtime, 'Championship Boxing', June the 11th at the (International) Boxing Hall-of-Fame weekend at the Turning Stone Casino against John Molina," said Artie Pelullo, the head of Banner Promotoins which represents Provodnikov.
There had been reports of 'the Siberian Rocky' facing Terence Crawford on HBO in the summer. Pelullo explained to BoxingScene.com:
"Bob (Arum) and I were supposed to talk today and I did call him a few minutes ago before the release went out to explain to him that we were going in another direction and he understood that he said he'd find somebody else for Crawford and I wished him good luck."
For Provodnikov, this move represents a certain type of opportunity moving forward. When asked what the big picture was with Showtime, Pelullo stated:
"Right now the picture is John Molina and then they got some great fights for Ruslan at Showtime. They've got (Adrien) Broner, they've got (Danny) Garcia, they've got (Floyd Mayweather). I mean all kinds of things can open up at 140-147 pounds that with Ruslan's style and Garcia's style and Broner's style, you're talking about great fights.
"We believe that this move is the pinnacle for Ruslan's career. There are a lot of major fights that can be made at Showtime for him."
HBO, simply didn't show enough interest in the opinion of Pelullo.
"HBO really didn't have anything for Ruslan and this was the right move at the right time of his career,"he stated."There was really nothing on the table for Ruslan and the only thing we were discussing - which was very vague -but at the end of the day with their budgetary constraints we probably weren't going to make the Crawford fight because it's not the right move for Ruslan's csareer. At Showtime, like I said, there's a Broner fight, a Garcia fight, the (Lamont) Peterson fight and maybe one day there's a Mayweather fight.
"There's a lot of things in play at Showtime because they're all in the right weight class for Provodnikov. It's great TV and Stephen Espinoza has been working with us and trying to figure out to get Ruslan on the network for a long time. It's been a work-in-progress that took over 15 months and we're really happy to be on Showtime and we're very happy Showtime believes in Ruslan the way they do."
And Pelullo, credited one of his chief lieutenant, Matt Rowland, for making this a reality.
"He was very instrumental in making this deal happen with Showtime because we went to several meetings over the last 15 months and Matt had good insight in what direction we should be going in and how we should proceed. So I just want to give credit where it's due."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
