Artur Beterbiev wants all the light heavyweight titles

By Boxing News - 05/31/2016 - Comments

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By Eric Baldwin: Yvon Michel, the promoter for unbeaten light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9 KOs), says the goal for Beterbiev is to capture all four of the light heavyweight titles in the division. To accomplish that task, Beterbiev, 31, will need to defeat IBF/WBA/WBO 175lb champion Sergey Kovalev and WBC champion Adonis Stevenson.

It’s not going to be easy for Beterbiev to get fights against both of those fighters. Facing Kovalev will require some waiting around until 2017, because he’s got two more fights scheduled in 2016 against Isaac Chilemba and Andre Ward.

If Kovalev is still unbeaten after those two fights are out of the way, then him and Beterbiev will be a possibility next year if Kovalev doesn’t choose to take a couple of voluntary defenses first.

Beterbiev will be coming off a year long layoff this Saturday night against 2008 Olympian Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna (23-2, 15 KOs) in a 12 round fight at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Maderna is moving up in weight from super middleweight to light heavyweight.

It could be difficult for him to adjust to the harder shots from Beterbiev from the punches he’s been taking in the 168lb division. Maderna has been twice already by Edwin Rodriguez and Thomas Oosthuizen.

“Right now, we really think Artur Beterbiev is the most dangerous challenger, pound-for-pound, in the world,” Michel said via ringtv.com. “The question is not if he is ready, because he already is. The real question is when will he have the opportunity to fight for a world title. The main objective is to aim for all the belts retained by Sergey Kovalev. If Artur didn’t injure himself, he would already be the IBF mandatory challenger. This injury delayed his chance at a title by a year. We also want people to realise that Artur is on his way to becoming a superstar.”

Beterbiev will have three fights in 2016 if he doesn’t suffer an injury of some sort that could keep him out of the ring. Beterbiev missed the past year of action due to an injured right shoulder. He’s had the problem taken care of and we’ll find out on Saturday night if he’s the same fighter he was before the injury. Beterbiev had been knocking out everyone and looking spectacular before he suffered the injury.

Facing Kovalev will be a major test for Beterbiev if he can get the fight against him next year. Beterbiev had beaten Kovalev in the amateur ranks, and he’ll get a chance to find out if he can do the same thing in the pros.