By Bob Smith: Tonight, undefeated light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (7-0, 7 KOs) will be facing Gabriel Campillo (25-6-1, 12 KOs) at the Pepsi Coliseum, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Campillo is a good fighter, but no match for Beterbiev, who in my opinion, in a year or two, will be a peer or superior even when compared to Sergey Kovalev.
Despite the fact that Campillo has won his three most recent fights, he simply will have no answer for the power and skill in cutting off the ring of Beterbiev.
Beterbiev is a beast. Did anyone on this site see how he stopped former world champion Tavoris Cloud in only two rounds? He dropped Tavoris Cloud three times, en route to knocking him out, despite the fact that Tavoris Cloud had never been been knocked down before. He is 7-0 against increasingly talented competition, and not a single fight of his has lasted more than four rounds. He also defeated Kovalev in the amateurs, if I am not mistaken. Physically, he is one of the most imposing boxers I have seen – while Kovalev and Golovkin have unquestioned power due to technique, Kovalev has both technique and a great deal of strength as well.
There is no way that Campillo can win this fight, and I highly doubt he will circle around the ring in survival mode as a game plan from the beginning of the first round. As a result, Beterbiev will cut off the ring, hurt him, knock him down a few times, and then knock him out. This is not to say that Campillo is a weak fighter; on the contrary, he is a top 10 light heavyweight – but unfortunately one who will not be able to handle the skill and power of Beterbiev.
I write this article not because the outcome is in doubt, but because after this fight people may pay more attention to Beterbiev, who by the end of this year will be at least a top 10 light heavyweight. And if he gets and wins another big fight, the elite troika of the division will be Beterbiev, Kovalev, and Stevenson.
However, for me, this division is not as interesting; the best division, even better than the welterweight or junior middleweight division, is the featherweight division, which in my view is the deepest in boxing. Nicolas Walters, Lomachenko, Gary Russell Jr. Abner Mares, Johnny Gonzalez, Evegeny Gradovich, and then possibly Rigondeaux and Santa Cruz as well – no other division in boxing has this type of world class talent actually in a position to fight each other.
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