By Sam Volz: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he’ll give unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev to fight for the undisputed championship against the winner of the Dmitry Bivol vs. Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez fight.
Before the undisputed 175-lb championship can happen, Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs) would need to defend successfully against his WBO mandatory Anthony Yarde in October.
However, that’s expected to be an easy fight for Beterbiev, as Yarde (22-2, 21 KOs) is more of a domestic level or European level fighter than a true world-class contender.
“Bivol has an obligation to fight an ex-fighter of ours Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, who Golden Boy Promotes. So, Bivol is not a cinch to win that fight,” said Bob Arum to Barbershop Conversations.
If you’ve seen how poor Zurdo Ramirez (44-0, 30 KOs) looked in his last two fights against Dominic Boesel and Yunieski Gonzalez, you’d disagree with Arum about his opinion that it’s not a sure thing that Bivol defeats Gilberto.
Ramirez, 31, should be fighting at cruiserweight at this stage in his career rather than at light heavyweight. He’s gotten too big for the weight class, and along with the bulk that Zurdo Ramirez has packed on in the last two years, he’s become glacially slow.
“Beterbiev owns three titles. If he gets by [Anthony] Yarde and we have a result from Bivol-Ramirez, absolutely, we want to give Beterbiev the opportunity to win all four titles,” said Arum.
It’s good that Arum won’t prevent Beterbiev from fighting for the undisputed 175-lb championship against the Bivol vs. Ramirez winner. Some boxing fans believe that Arum wants to protect Beterbiev from Bivol because it would be a bad style match-up for him.
Many people believe that Bivol is the #1 fighter in the 175-lb division right now based on his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win over Canelo Alvarez last May.
If Arum wants Beterbiev’s popularity to increase substantially, he’s going to need to let him take on Bivol if he comes out on top in his fight with Zurdo Ramirez. There’s no point in Arum protecting Beterbiev because it does more harm than good at this point.
The 37-year-old Beterbiev needs to take on the biggest names in the 175-lb division in a hurry to take advantage of his money-making potential.
