Reigning WBO junior welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov believes that he will be a tough opponent for Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he will be given the opportunity to face the reigning pound-for-pound king.
In an interview with On The Ropes Boxing Radio, Provodnikov said that he can put a lot of pressure on Mayweather, similar to what Marcos Maidana did earlier this month.
Maidana, a heavy underdog heading into their showdown on May 3 in Las Vegas, gave Mayweather arguably the toughest fight of his career, before the unbeaten champion escaped with a majority decision.
"I did watch the fight, it was a great fight," Provodnikov said. "I'm very impressed with Maidana in his last two fights, he does a great job. If I fought Floyd, I've said before that I think that we would have a great fight."
The 30-year-old Russian expressed confidence that he can do more against Mayweather, saying that he could put the Grand Rapids native into a lot of trouble.
"I definitely know that I wouldn't do less than Maidana, maybe more, we have similar styles but I think I can hurt Mayweather and I think it would be a really tough fight for him," Provodnikov said.
Provodnikov admitted, though, that a fight against Mayweather is a long shot at this point because he is currently not on Mayweather's list of opponent, but the Beryozovo, Russia native isn't losing hope.
"We'll see what happens, I don't want to get too much into dreaming right now - right now it's only part of a dream because right now there's no fight negotiated yet. Once the fight is negotiated at some point, then we can definitely talk more precisely about the way the fight would go," Provodnikov said.
At this point, Mayweather is reportedly considering Amir Khan again for his next bout, but his father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., is not too thrilled about the proposed Mayweather vs Khan showdown.
"[A fight with Khan] could go the distance but Floyd would put a real good whooping on him though, cause [Khan is] a boxer, he ain't nobody that's gonna swarm all over you - and the only reason the guy [Maidana] can do that is because he has that kind of weight to do that with Floyd," Mayweather Sr. said.
