By Steve Kim
There has been some talk from the side of Brandon Rios about facing either Ruslan Provodnikov or Jessie Vargas in the fall. According to Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, HBO has given them a date for his next bout. Rios is coming off a third round thrashing of Mike Alvarado in January.
For the last year or two, Artie Pelullo of Banner Promotions has been yearning for a match-up between his client( Provodnikov) and Rios, which figures to be a fan-friendly slugfest should it ever come to fruition.
But Pelullo if anything, is a realist.
"I don't think there's a Rios fight for Ruslan," he said, flatly. "I just don't see Bob Arum making the fight. If he has to chose between Ruslan Provodnikov or Jessie Vargas - who he promotes - I believe it's going to be Vargas."
Provodnikov last fought on the night of April 18th, when he dropped a close decision to Lucas Matthysse.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com