By Yuri Tarantin
According to Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, Brandon Rios (32-2-1, 23KOs) turned down the opportunity to face Ruslan Provodnikov (23-3, 16KOs) in the fall. Provodnikov is being positioned for a November return, which is going to be his first fight since an upset split decision loss to Chris Algieri in June. With the defeat, Provodnikov also lost his WBO junior welterweight crown. Roach expects his fighter to win a world in the near future.
"I am confident that Ruslan will become a world champion [and] I don't think we'll have a long wait. Another thing is that he needed a rematch with Algieri to prove his own superiority. But the second fight will not happen. At the moment we have a few suggestions for Ruslan, about some good fighters he can fight. As for Rios, when the fight with Provodnikov came up he turned it down."
Yuri Tarantin covers boxing for Allboxing.ru