Today the projected war between challenger Ruslan Provodinkov and interim WBO junior welterweight champion Mike Alvarado was made official at a press conference held in Denver, Colo.
The title bout is scheduled to be held Saturday Oct. 9 at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colo, giving Alvarado the hometown advantage.
Both fighters were very respectful of each other in the presser, but once these two warriors are in the ring with each other the kindness will be thrown out the window.
Provodnikov predicted that “both (he and Alvarado) are going to create a war” and that “one of us is probably going to remain in the ring after the fight.”
Alvarado (34-1, 23 KOs) knows that the hometown advantage he will have in the bout will be huge and mentioned it many times in the presser. He went on to rightfully thank Provodnikov (22-2, 15 KOs) for accepting the bout in his hometown, as it is a brave move, especially for the Russian, to take such a bout.
Not only using his words to show his appreciation, Alvarado presented Provodnikov with a Peyton Manning Denver Broncos jersey to welcome him to his hometown.
Provodnikov seemed to like the gift but he let Alvarado know that he would have preferred his favorite number instead of Manning’s No. 18. The number 1.
A fight that seemed like it might not happen after Alvarado was reportedly unhappy with the amount he was to originally be paid for the bout is on and a fight of the year candidate has been created.
Alvarado is fresh off his unanimous decision victory over Brandon Rios that many consider a fight of the year candidate in itself.
While Provodnikov is coming off a hard-fought loss to Timothy Bradley in March, but the fight is also a fight of the year candidate as well.
Look for these two fighters to go at it early and carry through until there is one man left standing or a full 12 rounds of bruising action is over.
