By Allan Fox: #2 IBF Artur Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs) will reportedly be fighting on February 24 at the Videotron Center to become the mandatory challenger to newly crowned IBF light heavyweight champion Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs). Beterbiev’s opponent is still yet to be determined. International Boxing Federation president Lindsey Tucker contacted Beterbiev’s promoter Yvon Michel on Monday to let him know about the news.
The IBF will look to see if #3 IBF Erick Skoglund (25-0, 11 KOs) and his promoters at Sauerland Events are interested in taking the fight with Beterbiev. If not, then the IBF will move down list of top contenders until they get one.
Beterbiev would be a very tough opponent for Ward to fight. Beterbiev matches up really well with Ward due to his inside fighting skills. Beterbiev not only can land with power in close, but he can land with knockout power.
When Beterbiev has an opponent wrestling him on the inside, he works an arm free and fires quick power shots over and over again until they let go. Beterbiev is able to get tremendous power on his shots on the inside. You can’t teach that. It’s something Beterbiev is born with.
If Ward fights Beterbiev, he’ll likely come up with some other scheme to get an edge against him. Ward will obviously try and wrestle Beterbiev on the inside and get the better of him with short punches, because that’s his style of fighting. But when that fails to work for Ward, you can expect him to abandon it and stay on the outside and look to land pot shots and jabs all night long to try and impress the judges enough to give him the decision.
Ward tried to fight Sakio Bika on the inside in their fight in 2010, and it didn’t work out well at all for him. Bika was too strong for Ward up close, and he punished him on the inside. Ward was then forced to move to the outside in the last six rounds to win a decision. I think that’s what Ward will try and do against Beterbiev.
Ward won’t stick it out too long in close once he tastes Beterbiev’s power. That’s if Ward doesn’t get knocked out while in close. Beterbiev could hurt Ward and finish him off. Kovalev made the mistake of not going after Ward after he knocked him down in the 2nd round with a combination to the head. Beterbiev wouldn’t be afraid to try and finish Ward. I think Ward would have nightmares against Beterbiev, because he would go after him on the outside and easily cut off the ring on him to force him to fight at close range.
Beterbiev has a two inch reach advantage over Ward, which means that wouldn’t be seeing Ward landing single shots on the outside too much without getting hit in return by Beterbiev. I think it would end badly for Ward whether he chooses to fight Beterbiev on the inside or stay on the outside all night long.
Beterbiev will cut off the ring and throw rapid fire triple right hands and left hooks one after another to hurt and finish Ward. Kovalev was making the mistake of throwing single shots, and missing badly against Ward. You don’t do that. You get in close and you throw one shot after another with the right or left hand. One of them will hit the mark.
Ward still needs to face Kovalev in a rematch in 2017, and there’s no telling who wins that fight. Ward barely beat Kovalev by a close 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night by the scores 114-113 x 3. It was the type of fight that could have easily one the other way. Indeed, many, if not most, boxing fans felt that Kovalev did enough to deserve the win. They not only thought Kovalev won the fight, but they felt he won it by four rounds at least.
For the fans that believed that Ward deserved the win, they only had him just edging it by one round. There’s a big difference between the fans that felt Kovalev won and the fans that thought Ward won. That’s why a rematch could easily go in Kovalev’s favor. It’s hard to imagine the judges giving Ward another decision if it’s close. That would look really bad if Ward wins back to back controversial decisions over Kovalev.
Michel said this to journaldemontreal about a possible fight between Beterbiev and Skoglund:
“If Skoglund refuses as expected, we will call the fourth, then the fifth, as long as we have not convinced a ranked to face Beterbiev. It must be understood that Beterbiev is a legend in Europe because of his career as an amateur. We’ll see,” said Michel.
Even if Skoglund turns down the fight, one of the top contenders will agree to face Beterbiev. It’s not as if there are tons of opportunities to get a title shot. I doubt that Skoglund would get a voluntary shot against Andre Ward or Adonis Stevenson. However, he might get a crack against WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly, because his promoters at Matchroom Sport frequently do business with Sauerland Events. It would be a potentially winnable fight for Skoglund against Cleverly. Facing Beterbiev would be a lot tougher option.
Here is the list and ask the next available contender in the rankings. The IBF’s rankings at 175 are as follows:
2. Artur Beterbiev
3. Erik Skoglund
4. Sean Monaghan
5. Enrco Kolling
6. Marcus Browne
7. Igor Mikhalkin
8. Vyacheslav Shabransky
9. Sullivan Barrera
10. Oleksandr Gvozdyk
11. Robert Stieglitz
12. Tent Broadhurst
13. Chad Dawson
14. Michael Lee
15. Radivoje Kalajdric
Beterbiev, 31, has a fight scheduled next month against #7 WBO Isidro Ranoni Prieto (26-1-3, 22 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round fight at the Lac Leamy in Gatineau, Quebec. Beterbiev is expected to slice through the 30-year-old Prieto without any problems. Prieto recently lost to Eleider Alvarez by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision last year in August 2015.
It won’t be surprising if Beterbiev winds up facing Kovalev next year for the IBF title rather than Ward. I can see Ward losing to Kovalev in a rematch with a different set of judges working the fight. If they fight the same way as last time, I think a different set of judges might score it for Kovalev, and they might even give it to hm by a fairly wide margin the way that the sports writers and HBO unofficial scorer Harold Lederman had it for Kovalev. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Ward vacates his IBF title rather than fight Beterbiev. It’s a bad match-up for Ward, because Beterbiev knows how to fight REALLY well on the inside, and is a bigger puncher than him. I don’t know if Ward would be able to reach into his bag of tricks to find something that would work for him against Beterbiev. He couldn’t use the wrestling that’s for sure. I think the inside fighting is Ward’s best attribute. Once you take that away, Ward isn’t that great on the outside. He’s just a guy that jabs.