Artur Beterbiev to make his second title defense against Sven Fornling
IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev will defend his title on ESPN when he takes on number four ranked IBF contender Sven Fornling May 4.
Beterbiev, one of the hardest punchers in the division, has suffered from a lack of big fights, as well as an ongoing legal battle with promoter Yvon Michel.
However, the Russian fighter will fight for the second time in four months. His last fight came against Callum Johnson back in October in Chicago on DAZN. Johnson dropped Beterbiev in that fight before the champion got off the canvas to score a fourth round knockout.
Post Johnson fight
Since that victory over Johnson, Beterbiev has been linked to possible fights with contenders Joe Smith Jr and Sullivan Barrera. However, for whatever reasons, those fights never materialized. He also most recently called for a unification bout with newly crowned WBO champion Sergey Kovalev.
As for the challenger, Fornling isn’t a popular name and his resume lacks of familiar names outside of Karo Murat, whom he defeated in December by unanimous decision. Yevgenii Makhteienko stopped Fornling once before back in 2016.
This isn’t the fight fans wanted to see but, unfortunately it’s one we’ll get. After this, hopefully we’ll see Beterbiev in unification bouts with the fellow champions in the division.
By: Jerrell Fletcher
