By Gregory Stangrit
Former junior welterweight world champion Ruslan Provodnikov (24-4, 17KOs) will is training hard for his next fight on November 7 in Monaco. His opponent will be 23-year-old Mexican contender Jesus Rodriguez (13-0, 10KO).
According to Provodnikov's manager, Vadim Kornilov, the original plan was to have his fighter make his Showtime televised debut against former champion Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs). They thought the fight was a done deal and even started camp for the contest, but then Khan decided to take a pass on the fight.
"Initially, Ruslan came to the United States to prepare for a fight against Amir Khan. Showtime confirmed that Khan had agreed, and so we arrived to start training. But, apparently, he never signed anything and it was not finalized and Khan changed his mind, and he began to say that he was a prime candidate for a fight with Pacquiao," Kornilov said.
"But the fact of the matter is, everybody knew that at that time [7 months before a probable date Pacquiao fight] there was no way Khan could have known whether or not he was going to be the opponent for Pacquiao. We started to go after different names, but they refused to fight.
"And in the end the whole team came to the decision that, in connection with the start of working with trainer Joel Diaz, Ruslan would take an interim fight to work on things with the new coach. We would have liked to organize a boxing show in Moscow, but we received a proposal from Monaco, and they had a show that was already set."
"Next year we will open a lot of doors because Ruslan has not concluded a contract with Showtime, and this could have happened if they had hosted a fight with Amir Khan. We are now open to fighting on HBO and on Showtime."
Gregory Stangrit covers boxing for Allboxing.ru
