Two highly regarded welterweight prospects will try to take the next toward title contention this Saturday.
Russians Radzhab Butaev and Alexander Besputin will face each other at the Casino de Monte-Carlo in Monte Carlo. The match will stream live on DAZN and is promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Promotions, even though Hearn does not have promotional rights to either main event fighter. Butaev is promoted by Lou DiBella and Besputin by Top Rank. Matchroom put in the winning purse bid for the fight in September with an offer of $505,555. That beat out bids submitted by Top Rank ($315,000) and Patriot Promotions ($415,000).
The fighters gathered for the final press conference on Wednesday.
“It’s a privilege to be on this show in the casino, especially as the main event,” said Butaev (12-0, 9 knockouts). “I’ll do my best to make a beautiful show, and come Saturday night you won’t regret watching. I hope it is going to be a war. I hope he is going to stay and not quit.”
Both Butaev and Besputin were standout amateurs, with 700 fights between them in the unpaid ranks.
“It’s a really good fight between to great fighters with brilliant amateur careers,” said Besputin (13-0, 9 KOs). “We both have a little bit of history. We were both in the Russian team, but we never met in the ring. I think it’s going to be a very interesting fight for the Russian fans, and many people in Russia will be watching this fight. On November 30th it’s going to be a great night.”
The undercard will feature unified welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus (35-0, 9 KOs) against Victoria Bustos (19-5, 0 KOs). This is Braekhus’ first fight under the Matchroom banner.
Undefeated Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang (20-0, 16 KOs) will take on late replacement Andriy Rudenko (32-6, 20 KOs) in a 10-rounder. Rudenko is subbing in for Sergey Kuzmin, who bowed out with an injury sustained during training. Zhang is coming off a knockout win over Don Haynesworth last year.
Heavyweight Hughie Fury (23-3, 13 KOs), hoping to rebound from his loss to Alexander Povetkin, faces Pavel Sour (11-2, 6 KOs) in a 10-rounder.
Rounding out the card, junior lightweights Joe Cordina (10-0, 7 KOs) and Enrique Tinoco (18-5-4, 13 KOs) will face each other in a 12-rounder.