Artur Beterbiev battles Isidro Prieto on Dec.23

By Boxing News - 09/29/2016 - Comments

1-Beterbiev vs Maderna_Fight_Dave Nadkarni _ Premier Boxing Champions12

By Allan Fox: In a disappointing match-up, unbeaten light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev will be facing fringe contender Isidro Prieto in a 12 round fight on December 23 at the Lac Leamy Casino in Quebec, Canada. This is the second fight for the 31-year-old Beterbiev since coming off of a year layoff from a shoulder injury. Beterbiev fought last June in defeating Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna (24-3, 16 KOs) by a 4th round knockout.

That was a decent fight for Beterbiev, because he was coming off of a year out of the ring, so you couldn’t expect much from him. However, Beterbiev is now heading into another long spell before he fights Prieto on December 23. By the time Beterbiev fights him, he’ll have been out of the ring for six months. That’s not good. Beterbiev needs to be busy, and he’s not unfortunately.

If Beterbiev beats Prieto, he’ll be in a position to fight in a world title eliminator as long as he doesn’t get injured again.

#10 Prieto was soundly beaten by Eleider Alvarez by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision last year in August 2015. Prieto lost by the scores of 117-111, 117-111 and 117-111. For the boxing fans that saw the fight, they witnessed Alvarez having his way with a very limited fighter in Prieto. It was a mismatch. If Alvarez had gotten out of 2nd year, he would have likely knocked Prieto out. Since that fight, Prieto has beaten journeyman Samuel Miller and Mohamad Said by early knockouts. You can’t say whether Prieto has improved or not because he’s not been fighting anyone good.

It’s unclear if Beterbiev’s promoter Yvon Michel had problems finding opposition for Beterbiev to fight or what. Whatever the case, it would have been more interesting to see Beterbiev fight some of the arguably more talented fighters in the 175lb division like Eleider Alvarez, Isaac Chilemba, Joe Smith Jr., Olesandr Gvozyk, Sean Monaghan, Marcus Browne, Erik Skoglund, Sullivan Barrera, Jean Pascal, and Robert Stieglitz. Those would be decent fighters for Beterbiev to fight instead of facing Prieto.

“It’s a fact that Artur Beterbiev is the most dangerous and biggest threat to all of the world light heavyweight champions,” promoter Yvon Michel said. “All contenders for titles change their minds when it comes to getting in the same ring with him. Isidro Prieto is a fierce fighter who accepted the challenge, also believing he has the style to repel even the most courageous boxer. He is determined to make a name for himself Dec. 23rd. We certainly admire his determination.”

Beterbiev is a two-time Olympian from Russia. He was thinking of fighting in the 2016 Olympics in Rios, but he chose not to. It’s a good thing because he’s already had two cracks at it, and it’s just not worked out well for him. Beterbiev would have had his hands full if he had tried to compete again in the Olympics, because the scoring for the fight is so odd compared to the pro game.

According to trainer Marc Ramsay, Prieto was the best available fighter for Beterbiev to fight. If that’s the case, then they need to get him fighting five to six times per year so until he gets a title shot. If it’s going to be lower level fringe contenders for Beterbiev, they need to keep him inside the ring until gets a title shot because the clock is running on his career. Beterbiev will be turning 32 in January, and he’s getting up there in age for a contender who has never fought for a world title before.

You at least want to see Beterbiev fight for a world title before he hits 33, because he’s limiting what he can accomplish in his boxing career. In hindsight, Beterbiev shouldn’t have bothered fighting in the 2012 Olympics, because if he had turned pro right away after losing to Zhang Xioping of China in the 2008 Olympics, he would have already fought for a world title by now in the pro ranks and likely would have already captured a title. I thought Beterbiev deserved the victory over Xioping in the 2008 Olympics. That was a poorly scored fight in my view. Beterbiev was landing with big shots the entire fight, but the judges were scoring his bigger blows.

Xioping held all night long and ran the entire third round. Beterbiev was landing huge shots in that round, but incredibly the judges scored one of Xioping’s shots. With all the holding and moving that Xioping did, I don’t think he deserved the win. Unfortunately for Beterbiev, that’s what he experienced in the 2008 Olympics. He should have turned pro rather than deal with that kind of experience again by going to the 2012 Olympics.

Sometimes the judges get things right by picking the better fighters of matches in the Olympics, but they often give the decisions to the inferior fighters. You wind up with gold medalists that can’t fight and turn out to be dreadful fighters in the pros.

“Prieto is by far the best fighter available to fight Artur,” trainer Marc Ramsay said. “He is very aggressive, and his style ensures a fight filled with action.”

Beterbiev needs to upgrade his opposition at some point before he gets older and loses his time.