By Allan Fox: Undefeated light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9 KOs) will be fighting on June 4 in a scheduled 12 round fight against the hard hitting Argentinian Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna (23-2, 15 KOs) at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
Beterbiev, 31, is coming off of shoulder surgery oterhwise he would likely be facing a better opponent than the 29-year-old Maderna. Beterbiev hasn’t fought since 7th round knockout win over Alexander “Woody” Johnson last June in 2015.
Beterbiev, #2 IBF, #4 WBO, #6 WBC, was in the process of looking to fight in an IBF eliminator fight last year, but a shoulder injury sustained in training derailed his plans.
Maderna was beaten by Thomas Oosthuizen and Edwin Rodriguez in 2013. Since then, Maderna has won his last three fights in beating Rolando Wenceslao Mansilla, Jose Alberto Clavero and Richard Vidal.
It’s unfortunate that it’s taken Maderna so long to finally step it up again because he’s wasted a lot of time by not fighting good opposition after his losses in 2013. He should have stepped it up against better opposition by now instead of wasting time fighting weak opponents.
Beterbiev is fortunate that the IBF, WBO and WBC has kept him ranked highly during his long layoff from boxing with his shoulder injury. Some sanctioning bodies would drop a fighter from their rankings if they missed the kind of time that Beterbiev has missed.
Before his suffering a shoulder injury, Beterbiev had been working towards a title shot against IBF 175lb champion Sergey Kovalev, who Beterbiev twice beat in the amateur ranks in Russia. Beterbiev showed in those fights that he really had Kovalev’s number with his superior inside fighting skills. Beterbiev might still have Kovalev’s number.
We’re going to find that out in the future when/if Beterbiev gets a title shot against Kovalev.
Beterbiev, a former two-time Olympian from Russia, has looked good since turning pro in 2013. He has knockout wins over former world champions Gabriel Campillo and Tavoris Cloud on his resume.