Artur Beterbiev says he’d like to fight Canelo Alvarez, Dmitry Bivol, or Joe Smith Jr. for his next fight following his successful defense of his IBF & WBC light heavyweight titles on December 17th against Marcus Browne at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
Beterbiev’s promoters at Top Rank would have no problems setting up a fight between him and WBO 175-lb champion Joe Smith Jr., as that would be an in-house match-up. As long Smith, 32, wants the contest, it’s doable.
It could prove more difficult for Top Rank to get Canelo or Bivol to take the fight because neither of them appears interested in taking a risky fight against the heavy-handed Beterbiev right now.
The unbeaten Beterbiev (17-0, 17 KOs) would very much like to defend against Canelo next, but he’s not sure whether the Mexican star is ready to move to the 175-lb division to face him yet.
Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) has already let the World Boxing Council know that he plans on moving up in weight next May to challenge WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu if he defeats his mandatory Thabiso Mchunu on January 29th.
Beterbiev, 36, defeated his WBC mandatory Browne (24-2, 16 KOs) by a ninth round knockout victory on ESPN+. The fight was an interesting one due to Browne colliding heads with Beterbiev in the fourth round, resulting in the Russian fighter suffering a nasty cut on his forehead. Beterbiev believes the head-butt was intentional on Browne’s part and a dirty move by him.
“Bivol and [Joe] Smith,” said Beterbiev when asked at the post-fight press conference following his ninth round knockout win over Marcus Browne on December 17th in Montreal, Canada.
“Yes, if he goes up to our category [175], I would be interested because it’s a good challenge for me,” said Beterbiev when asked if he’d be interested in fighting Canelo Alvarez. “He’s #1 pound for pound and a very good fighter.”
Canelo, 31, has already made it known that he’ll be fighting Makabu next, but his assuming he wins that match, he’s expected to move down to 175 to possibly go after the four titles in the weight class.
Beterbiev will likely be the first on Canelo’s list because he needs to get him out of the way as soon as possible because this isn’t the type of fight that the Mexican star wants to take when he’s in his mid-30s.
“He does this on purpose,” Beterbiev said about Browne about being head-butted by him during their fight. “After he cut me, I wanted to finish him as soon as possible,” said Artur about him feeling a sense of urgency to try and knock out Marcus as fast as possible to win before the contest was halted due to his bad cut.
“Beterbiev looks very beatable tonight 👀,” said Andre Ward on social media on his thoughts about Beterbiev’s fight with Browne.
“I don’t know if it’s his age or the layoffs…but Beterbiev saw a lot of shots that he could not get off tonight. You will see more guys trying to fight him now 😉,” said Ward.
As you can see, Andre Ward saw vulnerability in Beterbiev against Browne. Nevertheless, Beterbiev found a way to win, and his power still looked top-notch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjsiHoy852s
