If HBO wants to keep things in house for Pac's next bout then this matchup is preferable to a Tim Bradley rematch.
How do you see the fight playing out?
Provodnikov is a more skilled and better fighter than Rios. He would take his licks against Manny, but I think he could take them and land shots of his own. He won't neglect the body like Rios did.
I got Provodnikov by decision or possibly late stoppage.
They are both trained by roach and train together. How the hell do people expect them to fight? Has there even been a case where 2 guys who were trained by the same coach fight? There are a lot fighters for them to fight, roach has a great team why would he want to break it up?
These guys are sparring partners,friends, and both trained by freddy. It would be a glorified sparring match. It would look like the marg/rios fights except pac would be even more merciful towards ruslan. No thanks ill pass on this one.
This fight will be a massacre. Realistically, I think it's Pacquiao-Bradley and Provodnikov-Rios next. Marquez is only interested in 5th world title at 147. He probably waits out for winner of Pacquiao-Bradley or maybe fights Bradley in a rematch, then Pacquiao fights winner. Arum can keep these guys busy fighting each other for another 2 years.
First time I've voted on a poll against Pacman. Still questions about how he'd take a clean punch against a big puncher at 147. Rios himself didn't look very powerful at 140. Though he stopped Alvarado he didn't have much of that pop he did at 135.
If HBO wants to keep things in house for Pac's next bout then this matchup is preferable to a Tim Bradley rematch.
How do you see the fight playing out?
Provodnikov has a better chance retiring Pac than Rios did.
It's quite funny tho how Rios says he'll retire Pac
i see ruslan getting outboxed, if the fighter dances with him and doesn't trade like a mad man, he doesn't really have a gameplan for it. And especially now because of manny's new improved style of not looking for the ko