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Dan Rafael reports on Twitter this evening that Ruslan Provodnikov has been pulled from the January 25 edition of ESPN Friday Night Fights, where he was set to face Jason Pagara in the main event. The new main event fight for that show is a middleweight clash between Sergiy Dzinziruk and Brian Vera, but the real story here might be what Provodnikov is doing next.
When Timothy Bradley was looking for a December 15 fight, Provodnikov (22-1, 15 KO) was one of the names heavily discussed. Bradley chose to pass on that fight date, but now he's apparently set to return on February 9, and given his disinterest in fighting Mike Alvarado, and Top Rank's lack of options at 140-147, Bradley needs an opponent.
That might be Provodnikov. Keep in mind that there were stories sent out in the past day or so about the Provodnikov-Pagara fight, with ticket information and all that, so unless Provodnikov suffered a very sudden injury, it's only natural to think there's a chance he has landed the fight with Tim Bradley.
Whether or not it's Provodnikov, if Bradley is returning on 2/9, we'll learn the opponent soon enough.