By Jim Dower: Andre Ward’s retirement has cleared the way for a mad scramble for his IBF light heavyweight title between Artur Beterbiev (11-0, 11 KOs) and Enrico Koelling (23-1, 6 KOs) for their November 11 fight at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California.
The International Boxing Federation elevated the Beterbiev vs. Koelling fight on Thursday to be for their IBF 175 lb. title. They were set previously to fight an IBF light heavyweight title eliminator. Ward’s retirement changes all that now.
Ward’s retirement was exactly 1 week ago on September 21. If Ward decides to come out of retirement, he can always look to fight the winner of the Beterbiev vs. Koelling fight if he has a desire to win back his IBF title. The odds of that happening are low. Ward is probably not going to make a comeback. If he Ward does come back, Beterbiev likely won’t be the guy that he’s looking to tangle with.
“This is to notify you that IBF light heavyweight champion Andre Ward has retired. Now that the title is vacant, the IBF will approve the Artur Beterbiev vs. Enrico Koelling eliminator as a fight for the vacant title,” the IBF said via ESPN.com.
Beterbiev vs. Andre Ward would have been an even more interesting fight than Ward’s recent matches against Sergey Kovalev. Beterbiev isn’t vulnerable to body shots, and he’s very good fighter on the inside. I would dare say that Beterbiev is a better inside fighter than Ward. If that was the only thing that Ward could still do at this late stage in his career, it might not have been enough for him to beat Beterbiev. Ward would have had to use his wheels to try and beat Beterbiev by boxing him, and staying on the outside. It’s too bad Ward retired rather than sticking around long enough to fight the 32-year-old Beterbiev.
Ward would have had to soon face the winner of the Beterbiev (11-0, 11 KOs) vs. Koelling (23-1, 6 KOs), but his retirement saved him from the burden of that ordeal. Ward wouldn’t have made the same kind of money fighting the Beterbiev-Koelling winner that he received for his last 2 fights against Sergey Kovalev. That’s the downside of being a champion. You don’t always get the chance to fight the biggest stars in the sport.
Koelling recently beat Ryno Liebenberg for the second time last March in winning a 10 round unanimous decision. Koelling previously defeated Liebenberg by a 12-round split decision on October 1 last year.
The 2-time Russian Olympian Beterbiev has been working on trying to get a world title shot since he turned pro in 2013. Unlike Vasily Lomachenko, Beterbiev wasn’t given the opportunity to fight for a world title in his second fight as a pro.
Beterbiev has had to slog his way through a number of fights before he was given this golden opportunity to fight for a world title in his 12th fight. Beterbiev is still far ahead of the game in terms of fighting for a world title. It takes some fighters 10 years as a pro before they finally get a shot at a world title. For Beterbiev, he was lucky he didn’t have to wait on a fight against Ward. That might have taken him some time.
Other fights on the Beterbiev vs. Koelling card:
Jessie Magdaleno vs. Cesar Juarez
Jose Ramirez vs. Mike Reed