The fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed 175-pound championship, scheduled for June 1 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has been postponed after Beterbiev injured his knee in training.
The IBF, WBC and WBO titleholder ruptured his meniscus, Top Rank announced in a news release. The promotional company plans to stage the light heavyweight showdown before the end of the year.
The 5 vs. 5 portion of the show, in which fighters from Matchroom and Queensberry Promotions will face one another, will go on as scheduled June 1 on DAZN.
These are the five fights:
- Deontay Wilder vs. Zhelei Zhang, heavyweights
- Filip Hrgovic vs. Daniel Dubois, heavyweights
- Raymond Ford vs. Nick Ball, featherweights (for Ford’s WBA title)
- Austin Williams vs. Hamzah Sheeraz, middleweights
- Craig Richards vs. Willy Hutchinson, light heavyweights
The Beterbiev-Bivol bout has been highly anticipated, as both fighters are unbeaten and on pound-for-pound lists.
Beterbiev, 39, has stopped all 20 of his opponents, including Callum Smith in seven rounds in January.
Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs) is best known for defeating Canelo Alvarez in May 2022. He has since outpointed then-unbeaten Gilberto Ramirez and Lyndon Arthur by one-sided decisions.
The Arthur fight took place in in December, meaning Bivol will have been out of action for extended period of time in light of the postponement.
This story first appeared on Boxing Junkie, also a part the USA Today Sports network.