Ruslan Provodnikov won a thrilling bout against Mike Alvarado last week, and has now put forth two wildly entertaining slugfests underneath the HBO spotlight. As the new WBO light welterweight champion, Provodnikov has turned himself into must-see TV whenever he fights.
Boxing fans crave action fights, so Provodnikov may have become a sensation capable of attracting big-money fights. Of course, any fighter's dream scenario is a bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Could the "Siberian Rocky" be on Money's radar?
Yahoo! Sports speculated that Provodnikov vs. Mayweather could be billed as a classic "USA vs. Russia" Cold War battle, pitting another aggressive power puncher against Mayweather's defensive mastery.
Showtime executive Stephen Espinoza, however, is on record saying plodding power fighters have proven ineffective time after time against Floyd, with the answer to the "Money" equation being hand speed. For this reason, Amir Khan is believed to be the frontrunner for Mayweather's next fight, despite having a shaky resume and a knockout loss to Danny Garcia, who fought on Mayweather's most recent undercard.
Another option could be Manny Pacquiao, who fights Brandon Rios in November in China. The major obstacle to that fight is that Freddie Roach trains both Pacquiao and Provodnikov. Ruslan is rumored to be one of Pacquiao's sparring partners as he prepares for Rios.
Another intriguing option is Lucas Matthysse, who just lost his matchup with Garcia on September 14th. Despite taking the loss, he remains a power-punching treat to watch. A war between Matthysse and Provodnikov promises to be a short and explosive affair with major consequences.
Should Provodnikov prevail against the "Argentine Machine," he becomes a superstar capable of earning pay-per-view headliner money. On the other hand, if Matthysse were to emerge victorious, he could shrug of the Garcia loss as a blip on the radar, and pin the defeat on the cut Garcia opened on his eye.
Either way, one man would walk away a headliner, and the other would likely retain his status as an entertaining action fighter people want to see.
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