By Allan Fox: Unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) is on the verge of cleaning out the 160lb division once he beats Daniel Jacobs, Billy Joe Saunders and Saul Canelo Alvarez.
Golovkin may not need to defeat Saunders, because he’ll likely be eliminated in early 2017 once he fights the young 26-year-old Canelo Alvarez in a fight that will almost surely wind up on HBO pay-per-view in the United States.
By Allan Fox: In a disappointing match-up, unbeaten light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev will be facing fringe contender Isidro Prieto in a 12 round fight on December 23 at the Lac Leamy Casino in Quebec, Canada. This is the second fight for the 31-year-old Beterbiev since coming off of a year layoff from a shoulder injury. Beterbiev fought last June in defeating Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna (24-3, 16 KOs) by a 4th round knockout.
That was a decent fight for Beterbiev, because he was coming off of a year out of the ring, so you couldn’t expect much from him. However, Beterbiev is now heading into another long spell before he fights Prieto on December 23. By the time Beterbiev fights him, he’ll have been out of the ring for six months. That’s not good. Beterbiev needs to be busy, and he’s not unfortunately.
By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs) has wisely given up on the idea of him fighting in the 2016 Olympics. The 31-year-old Beterbiev would have had to complete in a qualifying process to earn the right in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
It would have been a process that would have taken time away from Beterbiev’s pro career, and the timing would have been really bad, given that he’s coming off a year-long layoff due to a shoulder injury.
By Dan Ambrose: Last Saturday night’s exciting match between WBC super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas (23-0-2, 17 KOs) and former two division world champion Orlando Salido (43-13-4, 30 KOs) averaged an impressive 833,000 viewers with a peak of 954,000 viewers on HBO’s Boxing After Dark, according to Dan Rafael.
The judges scored the fight a 12 round draw by scoring it 115-113 for Vargas, 114-114, and 114-114. It was hard not to see Salido as the better fighter, as he was landing the harder shots and pushing the fight for the entire 12 rounds.
By Jeff Aranow: It looks like unbeaten light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs) will be taking part in the Rio Olympics this summer. Beterbiev, 31, Tweeted that he’ll be returning to the pros after the Olympics. Beterbiev won last Saturday night in his 10th pro fight in defeating Ezequiel “El Olimpico” Maderna (23-3, 15 KOs) by a 4th round knockout at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
Beterbiev had been out of the ring for a year since June of 2015 due to a shoulder problem. If Beterbiev is going to spend this summer taking part in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, then it’s possible he might be out of action until later this year. The Olympics will take time. It’s unknown which country Beterbiev will compete for in the summer Olympics in Rio.
By Jeff Aranow: Undefeated light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs) should be back in the ring in September against hopefully a better opponent than the one he fought last night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Beterbiev destroyed a very timid-looking Ezequiel “El Olimpico” Maderna (23-3, 15 KOs) in four rounds.
Maderna came in two pounds over the limit during Friday’s weigh-in. That should have been a tip off that things weren’t going to go smoothly for the Argentinian fighter. What’s hard to understand is that Maderna was coming up in weight from super middleweight and yet he still came in over the limit.
(Photo Credit: Dave Nadkarni/Premier Boxing Champions) By Jeff Aranow: Unbeaten light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs) showed no signs of ring rust on Saturday night in blowing out 2008 Argentinian Olympian Ezequiel “El Olympico” Maderna (23-3, 15 KOs) in a 4th round knockout on Premier Boxing champions on ESPN from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Beterbiev, 31, knocked Maderna down four times in the fight in putting him down two times in the 3rd and two more times in the 4th.
The fight was halted in the 4th after Maderna’s cornerman tossed in the towel to let the referee know that they wanted the fight stopped. The official time of the stoppage was at 0:56 of the 4th round.
(Photo Credit: Dave Nadkarni/Premier Boxing Champions) By Eric Baldwin: #2 IBF, #4 WBA, #4 WBC, #7 WBO 175lb contender Artur Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs) looked strong tonight in stopping his tune-up opponent Ezequiel “El Olympico” Maderna (23-3, 15 KOs) in round four in a scheduled 12 round fight at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
Well known fighters Jean Pascal and WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson were both in attendance to watch the 31-year-old Beterbiev dispatch Maderna.
By Eric Baldwin: Yvon Michel, the promoter for unbeaten light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9 KOs), says the goal for Beterbiev is to capture all four of the light heavyweight titles in the division. To accomplish that task, Beterbiev, 31, will need to defeat IBF/WBA/WBO 175lb champion Sergey Kovalev and WBC champion Adonis Stevenson.
It’s not going to be easy for Beterbiev to get fights against both of those fighters. Facing Kovalev will require some waiting around until 2017, because he’s got two more fights scheduled in 2016 against Isaac Chilemba and Andre Ward.
If Kovalev is still unbeaten after those two fights are out of the way, then him and Beterbiev will be a possibility next year if Kovalev doesn’t choose to take a couple of voluntary defenses first.
By Jim Dower: WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (26-1, 21 KOs) totally dominated a lighter looking Sakio Bika (32-7-3, 21 KOs) in winning a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.