Beterbiev fights Campillo tonight, looking to get Kovalev next

By Boxing News - 04/04/2015 - Comments

press conference-0008 - Artur Beterbiev Gabriel Campillo(Photo Credit: Amanda Kwok / PBC on CBS) By Dan Ambrose: #7 WBC, #12 WBA, #13 IBF, #13 WBO light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (7-0, 7 KOs) will be looking to make a case for himself to getting a shot at IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champ Sergey Kovalev when he faces former WBA 175 pound champ Gabriel Campillo (25-6-1, 12 KOs) tonight on the Adonis Stevenson – Sakio Bika card at the Pepsi Coliseum, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

Beterbiev, 30, just turned pro two years ago in 2013 after having a long amateur career in Russia. He twice fought in the Olympics, and he reportedly defeated Kovalev on two occasions.

Beterbiev sees tonight’s fight against Campillo as a fight that won’t be a problem for him, as he feels he’s going to get the 37-year-old Campillo out of there without a hitch. He wants to get past him so that he can get Kovalev in the ring and take his titles from him.

Beterbiev isn’t worried about not having much pro experience because he feels that the action he saw in his amateur career was more than enough to have him ready for any of the top fighters in the pro game. To be sure, fighting in the Olympics twice definitely gives Beterbiev a great deal of experience that many fighters don’t have in the pro game.

“I don’t think this is a big challenge for me,” said Beterbiev about the Campillo fight. “I’m ready to face the world champions and raise the bar higher. This is just another opponent for me. Why not face Kovalev? I’m ready. When I turned professional my goal was to meet the champions. He’s a champion now and I’d like to face the champions.”

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Campillo is just an opponent for Beterbiev. This is a fight that he should win without any problems. The only question is will Campillo be able to drag Beterbiev deep into the fight to drown him in the later rounds. This is a 12-round fight, and Beterbiev has never gone past four rounds. Although he’s never shown any tendency to look winded during any of his fights, Beterbiev still could have a lot of problems if the fight goes past the 10th.

I can’t imagine Campillo being able to take Beterbiev’s shots round after round for a full 12 rounds without getting knocked out. Campillo was stopped by Andrzej Fonfara and Kovalev in 2013. Campillo was also stopped by Vyacheslav Uzelkov in 2007.

Beterbiev punches better than Uzelkov and Fonfara, and he’s a tougher to fight than those two because of the pressure he puts on his opponents. If Beterbiev is able to crowd Campillo, and lean on him against the ropes to batter him, I don’t think this fight is going to go the full distance. It might not even make it to the 6th round if Campillo can’t keep Beterbiev off of him.

With his #7 ranking with the World Boxing Council, Betebiev might be in position to fight for a world title by 2016 against WBC champion Adonis Stevenson, if he’s still the WBC champion by then. If it’s not Stevenson, then it could be Kovalev or Bika that will hold the WBC title by next year.



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