By Ryan Burton
BoxingScene.com recently caught up with Vadim Kornilov, who manages former WBO junior welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov and several other fighters. Provodnikov is scheduled to return to the ring on November 28th in his homeland of Russia.
The fighter known as "Siberian Rocky" was originally slated to return to the ring in the United States but his team's attempts to secure a top level opponent failed. Kornilov is confident that Ruslan will be back on HBO's airwaves in 2015.
"We are not disappointed at all and HBO does want Ruslan back on their network as far as I know," said Kornilov in response to his fighter's next fight not being televised by HBO. "For now we were not able to negotiate the right ratio of financial terms to the opponents that were being offered to us by our promoters and the network. Every opponent that we wanted including Brandon Rios, Timothy Bradley, Chris Algieri, Jesse Vargas, Diego Chaves, Danny Garcia, and numerous others were not going to fight us according to the networks and our promoters."
Kornilov feels that the notoriety that Provodnikov gained from his 2013 campaign that included winning Fight of the Year in his battle against Tim Bradley will make his homecoming fight one of the biggest in the country's history. He said that it was important to them to be able to showcase Provodnikov in front of his fans who aren't able to make the trek to the United States to see their hero fight in person.
"The offer from Russia was very timely and attractive, and with the fight being considered as one of the biggest fights in Russian history after the Povetkin vs. Klitschko fight, and being hosted as a main event in one of the biggest arena's in Moscow, it was hard to let this opportunity pass by.
"Since Ruslan has not fought in Russia in over three years, we decided it's the right time for him to go to Moscow so that all his fans at home can come and enjoy one of his fights live because obviously not all of his Russian fans can get a visa and afford a trip to the US. I'm sure that in the beginning of next year Ruslan will be back on HBO in a big fight," Kornilov told BoxingScene.com.
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