By Allan Fox: #2 IBF Artur Beterbiev (11-0, 11 KOs) will be facing #5 IBF Enrico Koelling (23-1, 6 KOs) in an IBF light heavyweight eliminator fight. This is a fight to determine the mandatory challenger to IBF champion Andre Ward. The 27-year-old Koelling has reportedly agreed to face Beterbiev in the eliminator bout.
Beterbiev, 32, was supposed to be fighting Sullivan Barrera, but the Cuban fighter pulled out of the scheduled April 21 fight. The IBF then sent out invitations to the available top 10 contenders in their top 10rankings to get one of them to agree to face Beterbiev. If no one had agreed to take the fight, Beterbiev would have been made the IBF mandatory without a fight. Instead, Beterbiev will need to beat the once beaten German Koelling to earn the spot.
The 2012 Olympian Koelling has been a pro since 2012. He was beaten by Italian fighter Mirco Ricci (17-3, 5 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in February 2015 in Germany. Koelling has since won his last 7 fights against decent level opposition. Koelling will be taking a big step up in class in taking on Beterbiev, because he’s not faced anyone remotely as talented as him. Koelling has been beating guys like Ryno Liebenberg, Oleksandr Cheviak and Sergey Demchenko lately. Those aren’t major players at light heavyweight.
It’s pretty brave of Koelling to take the fight with Beterbiev, because he’s not had too many takers lately. I wouldn’t say Beterbiev is scaring off all the other contenders, but it sure looks that way.
“He had refused a first time when the process had been launched (in January),” said Beterbiev’s promoter Yvon Michel to rds.ca. “Even this time, Sauerland Events had let it be known that its two protégés, Koelling and Eric Skoglund, did not want to face Beterbiev. Eventually, at 4 pm Sauerland reported to the IBF that Koelling had changed his mind. We are very happy.”
Michel is hoping to make the Beterbiev-Koelling fight for May.
Ward is supposed to be fighting a rematch against Sergey Kovalev in June. Beterbiev will face the winner of that fight if he gets past Koelling. The big question is will the Ward-Kovalev winner elect to abide by the IBF ordering him to fight the winner of the Beterbiev vs. Koelling. Kovalev was beaten twice by Beterbiev in the amateur ranks, and it might tough on him to try and deal with his punching power at the pro level. It would be disappointing if the winer of the Ward vs. Kovalev 2 fight chooses to vacate the IBF title in order to avoid facing Beterbiev.
Beterbiev has looked great in his last two fights in destroying Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna and Isidro Ranoni Prieto. Beterbiev’s punching power looks very good right now. It’s hard to imagine Koelling being able to make it the full 12 round distance against him.