Boxing Results: Artur Beterbiev destroys Adam Deines

By Boxing News - 03/20/2021 - Comments

By Jim Maltzman: Artur Beterbiev took his time in slowly breaking down his tough opponent Adam Deines before finally stopping him in the 10th round to hold onto his IBF & WBC 175-lb titles on Saturday night in Moscow, Russia  The fight took place at the Megasport Sports Palace.

After slowly wearing the 30-year-old Deines (19-2-1, 10 KOs) through nine rounds, Beterbiev (16-0, 16 KOs) came alive in the 10th and dropped him with a big right hand snapped his head back.

YouTube video

Deines fell on his hands and knees. The referee stopped the fight at 1:34 of round 10.

When Deines got back up, his corner held a towel up to signal for the referee to stop it. Deines didn’t look pleased with his corner stopping it, as it looked like he wanted to continue to try and finish the fight.

The way that Beterbiev was punching in the 10th, Deines would have been dropped again.

It was a different Beterbiev in that round compared to how he was fighting in rounds 2 through 9. His shots had more power to them in the 10th, and it was as if he decided to purposefully take Deines out in that round.

Could Beterbiev have stopped the fight earlier? I believe he could have ended the fight in the first round if he wanted to, but that wouldn’t have done Beterbiev any good.

Not only would have hurt Beterbiev’s efforts at getting the rust out from a year and a half of inactivity but also it might have permanently scared away Canelo Alvarez, a fighter that he wants to fight.

At least with Beterbiev looked unimpressive in rounds 2 through 9, it might give Canelo the self-confidence needed for him to come up to 175 to challenge Beterbiev for his titles.

After dropping Deines in the first round, Beterbiev slowed up and fought him in the same manner that we saw from Floyd Mayweather Jr in his fight against Conor McGregor in 2017.

Beterbiev looked like he was fighting at half-speed, occasionally throwing a hard shot, but mostly just connecting, and mixing his shots off. I hate to think that Beterbiev was carrying Deines, but it sure looked that way.

It was like watching a sparring match during training camp. I mean, you can’t blame Beterbiev if he chose to take it easy on Deines tonight because he was coming off a 17-month layoff, a rib injury, and a case of COVID. All that combined made it important for Beterbiev to get rounds in tonight.

All you can say it Beterbiev did his job and held onto his IBF & WBC titles with another knockout win.

The Russian Deines fought his heart out, and took a lot of heavy shots from Beterbiev throughout the contest. Deines landed a lot of punches, but he lacked the power to keep Beterbiev off.

Even when Deines landed flush shots with everything on them, Beterbiev walked through them, not slowing up for an instant. Deines’ physique is that of an overweight super middleweight, which is probably where he should be fighting.

If Deines lost a few pounds, he could easily campaign as a 168-pounder, and he might have better luck. Deines clearly lacks the punching power to compete against the top guys at 175, but things might be different for him if he moved down to super middleweight.

The best round tonight for Deines was the second. He landed some good shots in that round, taking advantage of Beterbiev letting his foot off the gas pedal after dropping him in the previous round.

Still, Beterbiev’s shots had a lot more power than the lighter ones that Deines hit him with in the second, so it’s hard to say that he deserved to win that round. But if you were to make a case that Deines deserved to win a round, it would be the second.

In the first round, Beterbiev caught Deines with a right hand that dropped him. It was the perfect shot from Beterbiev, but it didn’t look like he put everything into it, though. Compared to the way that Beterbiev was punching in the 10th, it looked like a punch that only had 70% power. That was enough to drop Deines.

For all intents and purposes, Beterbiev looked disengaged throughout the fight, even after dropping Deines in the first. He didn’t have that same seek & destroy mode that we’d seen from him in his previous 15 fights, and clearly not the fighter that had stopped Oleksandr Gvozdyk in the 10th round in 2019.