After announcing a Jan. 24 fight date that never came to be, and entertaining matchups with Floyd Mayweather and WBA welterweight champ Rolly Romero, Pacquiao moved on to Ruslan Provodnikov for a 10-round welterweight exhibition match on April 18 at Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
The exhibition was announced Tuesday by event organizers Indistry Media and Arthur Pelullo\u2019s Banner Promotions. <\/p>\n
\u201cI carry the Philippines with me every time I fight,\u201d said Pacquiao in a statement. \u201cThe support from my country and from fans around the world continues to inspire me. Returning to Las Vegas means so much to me, and I\u2019m excited to work with a team focused on creating a world-class experience for the fans. I\u2019m coming back to give them a great fight \u2014 and I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pacquiao (62-8-3, 39 KOs) returned from a four-year retirement in July and fought to a majority draw against WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios. Pacquiao turned 47 in December and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in June. <\/p>\n
Provodnikov (25-5, 18 KOs) hasn\u2019t fought as a pro since 2016. Now 42, he retired after losing four of his last seven fights. Although the stretch was uneven, it was a significant one that put Provodnikov\u2019s name on the boxing map, especially after his 2013 Fight of the Year against Timothy Bradley. <\/p>\n
After the war against Bradley, Provodnikov, nicknamed “The Siberian Rocky,” beat Mike Alvarado for the WBO 140-pound title in 2013 but failed to defend it next time out against Chris Algieri in 2014. Provodnikov also knocked out a war-torn version of Jose Luis Castillo that year and dropped a majority decision against Lucas Matthysse in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cManny and Ruslan should have faced each other earlier in their careers, and it\u2019s a shame it didn\u2019t happen sooner, but at least we are getting it now,\u201d Pelullo said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cBoth Manny and Ruslan are among the most exciting, fan-friendly and TV-friendly fighters of their generation. Manny and Ruslan never back down and never give an inch. Manny showed in his last fight with Barrios that, despite his age, he is still a world-class fighter. Personally, I thought he won the fight and should be the WBC welterweight champion. As far as Ruslan is concerned, Ruslan has always wanted to get either Pacquiao or Mayweather in the ring, and now the opportunity is here. I am confident that Ruslan will steal the show and rise to the occasion.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Manouk Akopyan is The Ring\u2019s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After announcing a Jan. 24 fight date that never came to be, and entertaining matchups with Floyd Mayweather…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[72640,6980,703,184736,711,49,48,44,82,1134],"class_list":["post-483376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-object-object","tag-announcement","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-articles","tag-boxing-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-the-ring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}