By Jeff Aranow: Undefeated light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs) should be back in the ring in September against hopefully a better opponent than the one he fought last night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Beterbiev destroyed a very timid-looking Ezequiel “El Olimpico” Maderna (23-3, 15 KOs) in four rounds.
Maderna came in two pounds over the limit during Friday’s weigh-in. That should have been a tip off that things weren’t going to go smoothly for the Argentinian fighter. What’s hard to understand is that Maderna was coming up in weight from super middleweight and yet he still came in over the limit.
Beterbiev’s promoter Yvon Michel wants to keep him busy so that he can make up for lost time after being out of the ring for one year because of a right shoulder injury. Beterbiev needed a good opponent to give him rounds in his first fight back. Unfortunately, Beterbiev didn’t get rounds last night due to Maderna getting stopped so quickly.
Beterbiev reportedly wants to take part in the Olympics this summer in Rio, according to Lapresse.ca. If Beterbiev does take part in the amateur event, it could slow down his progress towards getting his pro career back on track. Beterbiev has twice fought in the Olympics for Russia in 2008 and 2012. In both instances, he was eliminated by good fighters.
It would seem pointless for Beterbiev to take part in another Olympics because the game is not really suited towards his skillset. Beterbiev is a huge puncher with less than fast hands. He doesn’t throw a lot of shots like many amateurs, and he’s not quick on his feet. Guys that Beterbiev would lose to in the Olympics in their three round fights, he would have a good chance of beating in a 12 round fight in the pro ranks.
Beterbiev was beaten by Zhang Xiaoping of China in the 2008 Olympics. If Beterbiev fought Zhang in the pros, he likely would knock him out. But in the Olympics, Beterbiev doesn’t have the speed to land enough of his heavy shots in the three rounds he has to work in. I think he’ll waste his time if he fights in the summer Olympics this years because he’ll likely be facing someone that will jab, move and pot shot for three rounds to earn a decision.
Maderna hit the canvas on four separate occasions in the fight. None of the knockdowns appeared to be from hard shots. That was the troubling part about the fight. Maderna was just falling don from punches that didn’t have a lot power on them. In the first knockdown, Beterbiev landed a hard right hand.
Moments later, Beterbiev connected with a glancing shot to the back of Maderna’s head that dropped him. In the second knockdown, Beterbiev landed two right hands that sent Maderna down. In round three, Maderna threw a wild right hand that missed badly. Beterbiev then connected with a left that had nothing on it that knocked Maderna down. In the final knockdown, Madera went down from a very weak looking right hand.
Beterbiev is working his way to a title shot against IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev, who has a big start over him due to Kovalev having turned pro seven years ago in 2009. Beterbiev has been a pro for just three years now since 2013 due to all the time he spent in the Russian amateur system.
The last thing Beterbiev needs is to waste more time fighting in the amateurs instead of focusing on what’s important in the pro ranks. It won’t help Beterbiev to take his career backwards by going back to the Olympics. He had his chance twice and his skills were suited to that type of fighting.
It’s hard to see amateur boxing as true boxing because the judges focus on scoring shots that land only with the white portion of the gloves. They often ignore huge shots that don’t land with the white portion of the gloves. Even when punches do land properly, they’re not always counted. It’s a very strange sport it seems completely different.
Beterbiev needs to fight an eliminator so that he can become the mandatory for Kovalev. For Beterbiev to become the mandatory, he’ll need to fight the likes of Andrzej Fonfara, Erik Skoglund or Sean Monaghan.