Artur Beterbiev is ready for Canelo Alvarez next
When Artur Beterbiev (16-0 16 KO’s) snapped his near two-year of inactivity, he was able to keep his perfect knockout streak intact. The IBF and WBC World Light Heavyweight champion was guilty of many defensive foibles throughout the fight. Technically, it would be easy enough to write this off to ring rust. Outside of eating several clean shots throughout, Beterbiev stalked Adam Deines like an abusive shadow and dissected him in clinical fashion.
As it always is for fighters, directly after his conquest of Deines, the question then became, “who’s next?” In the post-fight media presser, the Russian pugilist was asked to verify whether or not he had been contacted by Team Canelo. There had been whispers of such a transaction, yet so much of the boxing world is smoke and mirrors. When posed with the inquiry, by way of his coach, Beterbiev denied that there was ever any correspondence.
While the unified champion could not say that they had talked, he was more than open to staging talks. The Russian recognizes that the WBA Super and WBA World Super Middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KO’s) is the golden goose. This is precisely why he would love to secure a showdown with the redhead.
“We would have meeting and we will tell them yes!”
FUN BUT FAR-FETCHED
The thought of Beterbiev and Canelo colliding in tactical firefight is a fun fantasy. It is also highly improbable. It is fun because both are highly skilled and Canelo would have to daringly jump up to light heavyweight again. Only this time, he would be dancing with in an in-prime wrecking machine rather than the faded Sergey Kovalev. It is improbable because Alvarez has already publicly announced his desire to unify all the belts at super middleweight.
He is already in possession of the WBA and WBC titles and is scheduled to face WBO World Super Middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders on May 8. The common belief holds that, if successful against Saunders, Canelo would then face IBF World Super Middleweight champion Caleb Plant.
In his last outing, Canelo mashed up and stopped WBC mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim. It was a voluntary match that he chose to stage. With the mandatory obligation satisfied and back-to-back unification bouts, it is very doubtful that Alvarez will abandon his plans. So again, while it is intriguing to speculate how Beterbiev v Alvarez would play out, at the moment it is fool’s gold.
By: Bakari Simpson
