By Allan Fox: A fight between#11 WBA, #11 WBC light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (7-0, 7 KOs) and #2 WBC, #5 WBO, #7 IBF Isaac Chilemba (23-2-2, 10 KOs) is in the works for March 14th as part of a triple-header on HBO as part of the Sergey Kovalev vs. Jean Pascal broadcast, according to Dan Rafael.
Chilemba has agreed to the fight. Now we just need to get the green light from Beterbiev’s promoter Yvon Michel, and then the fight can be put together. It would be a good step up fight for Beterbiev, because Chilemba, 27, is arguably a better fighter than Tavoris Cloud, a recent Beterbiev knockout victim.
A win over Chilemba would give Beterbiev a move up in the rankings. Right now, he’s still lingering below the top 10 even though he looks a lot better than any of the top 10 contenders.
With boxing being political, it’s not surprising that Beterbiev is still below guys he’d likely destroy like Robin Krasniqi, Sean Monaghan, Nadjib Mohammedi and Radivoje Kalajdzic. Those guys are all ranked above Beterbiev, and yet they don’t look nearly as good as him.
Beterbiev, 29, is coming off of a 2nd round knockout win over Jeff Page Jr this month on December 19th. Beterbiev was knocked down in the 1st round from a clash knockdown. However, he came back strong in the second round to knock Page Jr down three times before the fight was halted at 2:21 of the round.
Beterbiev’s management are moving him fast with his career due in part because of him being a two-time Olympian from Russia. With the Olympic experience and the ton of amateur fights he had there’s no reason to bring Beterbiev along slowly.
Additionally, he’s up there age at 29, and he can’t be brought along slowly in the same way you would with amateur who turned pro at 22 or 23. If Beterbiev’s management take their time with him, it’s going to take too long and he’ll age out just when he gets put in position for a title shot.
The Kovalev-Pascal fight card also will have a heavyweight fight between Vyacheslav Glazkov vs. Steve Cunningham. It’s a decent fight. Not great by any means, but these guys are decent gatekeeper type heavyweights.
It’s hard to see either of them ever winning a world title at heavyweight unless it’s an interim job or a title from one of the sanctioning bodies that has multiple titles in some of their weight class like the WBA.
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