Artur Beterbiev Open To Fighting Canelo Alvarez If He Returns To Light Heavyweight Division
Artur Beterbiev is open to fighting Canelo Alvarez if the Mexican returns to the light heavyweight division.
Beterbiev has made mandatory defenses of his two light heavyweight titles in 2021 and the Russian knockout artist would be open to fighting Alvarez should the Mexican drop back down in weight. It would be a massive payday for the Russian and an intriguing matchup for boxing fans.
“Listen, of course I am open to fighting Canelo if he wants to return to the light heavyweight division,” Beterbiev told BoxingScene.com following his ninth-round knockout of Marcus Browne on Friday night at Bell Centre in Montreal. “I always want to fight the best, and he is a great fighter.”
Artur Beterbiev (17-0) is coming off a KO win over Marcus Browne to defend his WBC and IBF light heavyweight titles. Earlier this year, he scored a TKO win over Adam Deines to defend both titles, which was his first fight since October of 2019. In that fight, he TKO’d Oleksandr Gvozdyk to win the WBC belt and defend his IBF title. He also holds notable wins over Callum Johnson, and Radivoje Kalajdzic among others.
Although Beterbiev wants Alvarez at light heavyweight, it’s uncertain the Mexican will return to that division. He has already won a belt in that division when he knocked out Sergey Kovalev in the 11th round of a highly competitive fight to win the WBO belt in November 2019. He is now eyeing a move to cruiserweight and is looking at big legacy fights or winning belts in new divisions.
With that, Alvarez’s coach knows the Mexican can hang with cruiserweight and heavyweights.
“I know … what he has done with the heavyweights he spars with, and that is why we asked for the fight,” Reynoso told ESPN Deportes’ Salvador Rodriguez. “We know that [Makabu] is strong, but Canelo can beat him. … Many may say that it is crazy, but they also said that it was crazy when Canelo was junior middleweight champion, and we were looking for middleweights, super middleweight, light heavyweights. I have a lot of confidence in Canelo. He is very strong and has many qualities, and I know that he is going to win that fight.”
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