Former undisputed light-heavyweight world champion Artur Beterbiev is eager to return to motion as quickly as doable, however he believes that one of many present world champions is ‘ducking him’.
Beterbiev knocked out Enrico Koelling to seize the IBF light-heavyweight title again in 2017 and, after defending the belt towards Callum Johnson and Radivoje ‘Scorching Rod’ Kalajdzic, the Canadian-Russian unified the titles by halting WBC champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
As soon as once more, two defences adopted, as Beterbiev continued his 100% knockout streak with wins towards Adam Deines and Marcus Browne within the space, earlier than including the WBO strap to his assortment by knocking out Joe Smith.
Then, for a 3rd time, Beterbiev made two additional title defences earlier than colliding with Dmitry Bivol in a legendary undisputed showdown in October 2024, the place his knockout streak got here to an finish within the crowning second of his profession – going the space for the primary time however claiming a majority-decision win.
Simply 4 months later, Bivol reversed the consequence of their rematch with a majority choice triumph of his personal, however there was no rubber match since that assembly 16 months in the past, a lot to the frustration of 41-year-old Beterbiev,
Talking with The Ring, Beterbiev declared that Bivol is ‘ducking’ a 3rd struggle, regardless of the ‘free settlement’ which is known to be in place.
“There’s a very brief time after the primary struggle and third struggle, even with that I accepted this struggle, anticipating to have the third struggle inside 5/six months. You possibly can see that he doesn’t wish to struggle, he’s ducking me, I thinks so.”
So as to add to Beterbiev’s issues, Bivol might be made to face obligatory challenger Callum Smith within the close to future, except he’s prepared to relinquish the WBO world title.
