By Alexey Sukachev
BoxingScene.com contacted top Russian promoter and boxing personality German Titov for a quickie to know more about his recent activities and future plans of his most popular protégés. Here is what Russian two-time (2007 and 2008) Promoter of the Year (in accordance with the Professional Boxing Federation of Russia) has to say.
About Dmitry Pirog, “I’m currently in thorough negotiations with the WBO headquarters about Dmitry’s future opponent. The problem here is that the American fighter – and I’m speaking about really tough challenger who has won his previous fight, and that was a big fight indeed – is unranked by the World Boxing Organization. Nevertheless, I hope that we shall be given an approval for him in coming days. A majority of other fighters, which are ranked by the WBO, are either not eligible – such as Kelly Pavlik or David Lemieux and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (who are tied with the WBC at the time) – or aren’t strong enough to give Pirog fits as this Brazilian fighter (John Anderson Carvahlo) or, say, Dionisio Miranda, who was defeated by Roman Karmazin the last year. We are short in time – posters should be prepared as fast as possible – so I hope our negotiations with the WBO will be fruitful”.
About Ruslan Provodnikov: “Ruslan delivered his worst ever professional performance against (Mauricio) Herrera. He was sluggish, raw and too-easy-to-resolve against an opponent he is much better than. Yet, he has done more than enough to get a decision, so the final outcome was simply shocking. Provodnikov won that fight handily. It should have been 115-113 or 116-112 – at least – in his favor. Such a renowned expert as Teddy Atlas also saw it for Provodnikov which speaks for itself. Frankly speaking, I have a hard time believing that American judges are so unskilled. We haven’t compiled any protests though as they can hardly help us at this moment.
A rematch with Herrera isn’t out of question but its possibility is diminished. The American fighter got a big win and he would give Ruslan a rematch only if considerably bigger finances are here which means it should be a televised bout at a bigger stage than their first encounter which is a hard promotion to arrange. Meanwhile, Ruslan will be back to the ring on February 22 in his native town of Beryozovo. He will fight a six- or an eight-round tune-up against an opponent which is yet to be defined. We expect him to get back on ESPN in late March or in April. I hope Provodnikov will learn a lesson and will be in much better shape than against Herrera even though his loss to the American was highly suspicious and in fact it wasn’t even a loss”.
About IBF #13 super middleweight Maxim Vlasov: “Maxim will appear on ESPN in late February probably against a hard opponent from South Africa. That will be a real test for our fighter as his possible opponent is the IBO champion with good credentials (IBO’s Isaac Chilemba is 15-1-1, with 6 KOs, and wins over Charles Adamu and several unbeaten prospects including Michal Bolling and Doudou N’Gumbu. He is Malawian but resides in South Africa). Nothing is resolved though, and negotiations are ongoing right now”.
About Russian promotions: “We have decided to postpone a night of boxing in Izhevsk. But a majority of fighters will appear in the ring on February 19 in Moscow under the guidance of my partner Kirill Pchelnikov. The main event will see rising light heavyweight Roman Simakov (14-1-1, 8 KOs) against Kenyan Doughlas Otieno (22-5, 11 KOs) in a battle for a vacant WBC ABC title. Our super featherweight hope Theodoros (Fedor) Papazov (6-0, 4 KOs) will have his first serious test against durable Thai Chaiyong Sithsaithong (25-5-3, 19 KOs) over six rounds. Also Vyacheslav Gusev (17-2, 4 KOs) will be back to the squared circle against Shavkhat Madaminov (9-4, 3 KOs) in another six-rounder. Light welterweight Fariz Kazimov (12-1-1, 3 KOs) is also set to see action in the undercard. I also hope to arrange a scintillating match-up between two capable Eastern European featherweights but nothing is resolved here at the moment”.
