Tag: Fanlong Meng

Artur Beterbiev suffers rib injury, title defense postponed

Artur Beterbiev’s title defense against Adam Deines, scheduled for Oct. 23 in Moscow, has been postponed because the champion was injured.

Those looking forward to the return of Artur Beterbiev will have to wait a little longer.

The light heavyweight titleholder’s defense against Adam Deines, scheduled for Oct. 23 in Moscow, has been postponed because the Russian suffered a rib injury in training, his promoter announced.

The fight is expected to be rescheduled before the end of the year, probably in December.

Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs) is the only current world titleholder who has stopped all of his opponents. He’s coming off an impressive 10th-round stoppage of previously unbeaten Oleksandr Gvozdyk in a title-unification bout in October of last year.

Deines (19-1-1, 10 KOs) has won two consecutive fights since he lost a unanimous decision to Fanlong Meng in June of last year. He’s a native of Russia who lives in Germany.

Artur Beterbiev suffers rib injury, title defense postponed

Artur Beterbiev’s title defense against Adam Deines, scheduled for Oct. 23 in Moscow, has been postponed because the champion was injured.

Those looking forward to the return of Artur Beterbiev will have to wait a little longer.

The light heavyweight titleholder’s defense against Adam Deines, scheduled for Oct. 23 in Moscow, has been postponed because the Russian suffered a rib injury in training, his promoter announced.

The fight is expected to be rescheduled before the end of the year, probably in December.

Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs) is the only current world titleholder who has stopped all of his opponents. He’s coming off an impressive 10th-round stoppage of previously unbeaten Oleksandr Gvozdyk in a title-unification bout in October of last year.

Deines (19-1-1, 10 KOs) has won two consecutive fights since he lost a unanimous decision to Fanlong Meng in June of last year. He’s a native of Russia who lives in Germany.

Top Rank’s four-man light heavyweight tournament reportedly set

Top Rank’s light heavyweight tournament will pit Eleider Alvarez against Joe Smith Jr. and Umar Salamov against Maksim Vlasov…

A new light heavyweight titleholder will be crowned in the coming months.

A de-facto four-man tournament will soon take place featuring Umar Salamov vs. Maksim Vlasov on one side and Eleider Alvarez vs. Joe Smith Jr. on the other. The winners of each bout will face off later this year for the WBO title, which was relinquished by Canelo Alvarez shortly after he seized it from Sergey Kovalev.

All participants are associated with Top Rank, which reportedly just signed Salamov and Vlasov to promotional deals, so all bouts will be televised and/or streamed on ESPN/ESPN+.

The Athletic was first to report the news.

Absent from the tournament is the WBO’s No.1 light heavyweight contender Gilberto Ramirez, who was originally slated to be involved. The Mexican hasn’t fought since his he stopped journeyman Tommy Karpency last April. He reportedly is at odds with Top Rank over his purse for that fight and is trying to buy out his contract. Ramirez’s retreat essentially opened up a spot for Smith.

Russians Salamov (25-1, 19 KOs) and Vlasov (45-3, 26 KOs) are relatively unknown stateside, but both Alvarez and Smith are known quantities.

Alvarez (25-1, 13 KOs) won the WBO title when he upset Kovalev in the summer of 2018 but lost it promptly in the rematch.The Colombian is coming off a one-punch knockout of Michael Seals last month, his first fight since returning from an Achilles injury.

The week prior, Smith (25-3, 20 KOs) picked up a solid points win over Jesse Hart. Smith, who works full-time as a day laborer in Long Island, is best known for ending the career of Bernard Hopkins in 2016.

Top Rank also promotes Russian bruiser Artur Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs), who defends two his light heavyweight belts against China’s Fanlong Meng (16-0, 10 KOs) on March 28 in Montreal. A potential unification bout between the winner of the WBO tournament and Beterbiev, should he remain undefeated, could conceivably be scheduled for the end of the year or the first quarter of 2021.

The lone light heavyweight titleholder that Top Rank does not control is WBA titlist Dmitry Bivol (17-0, 11 KOs), who is promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and the Russian outfit World of Boxing.