By Ryan Burton
Yesterday BoxingScene.com's Bill Emes caught up with Angel Garcia, father and trainer of WBA/WBC junior welterweight champion Danny Garcia and spoke about a variety of topics in the boxing world. When the subject turned to WBO junior welterweight champion Ruslan Provdonikov, the elder Garcia wasn't impressed.
"What's his name? How do you say that? The guy is not even a world star fighter. Everybody keeps saying he's a killer. They made him seem like a killer, ESPN did that. He ain't no killer. All he do is come in with an overhand right hook. It's as simple as that. Anybody can beat him. All you have to do is bang, bang, bang and then step over and grab him....bang, bang, bang and then step over and grab him," Angel told BoxingScene.com.
Provodnikov's manager Vadim Kornilov found Garcia's comments amusing to say the least. Kornilov has the utmost respect for Danny and Angel and was glad to hear that Angel has been paying attention to Provodnikov and his style.
Provodnikov is scheduled to return to the ring on June 14th and while a handful of fighters are still in the running to face the hard hitting Russian, an opponent has yet to be finalized. Kornilov made it clear that they would have no problem facing Garcia in June and hopes that a unification clash can be consummated.
"Angel is a very good trainer and his son is a great boxer. Danny proved that in his fights against (Amir) Khan and (Lucas) Matthysse. Angel also does very well in promoting fights, and even though I don't think it really matters if a fighter is Russian, Puerto Rican, or Mexican, I am very glad that Angel is beginning to promote the possible Danny Garcia versus Ruslan Provodnikov fight even though Danny still has (Mauricio) Herrera ahead of him who is a pretty tough opponent!
"It is great that another fighter is showing interest in fighting Ruslan, especially with the difficulty we are having in finding an opponent for Ruslan's next fight. Our team would be very supportive in making this fight happen! I think that a possible Provodnikov versus Garcia unification would be a great match up and that it will happen sooner or later. I am very respectful of the fact that Danny is ready to fight the best out there and it's not only in Angel's conversation, but also Danny's track record and willingness to get into the ring with someone like Lucas or possibly Ruslan!" Kornilov told BoxingScene.com.
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