Artur Beterbiev of Montreal, Quebec, has become the undisputed light heavyweight (175 pound) boxing champion of the world. The Russian-born boxer, who is a Canadian citizen, represents Canada internationally and has been in Montreal for the past 11 years, defeated Russia’s Dmitry Bivol in a majority decision on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Beterbiev now holds the World Boxing Association (WBA) super championship title, the World Boxing Council (WBC) title, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title and the The Ring Magazine title. At the start of the fight, Beterbiev held the WBC, IBF and WBO belts, while Bivol held the WBA belt.
In Saturday’s fight, Beterbiev won by majority decision. Of the three judges who judged the fight, two judges scored scores of 15-113 and 116-112 in favor of Beterbiev. While a third judge considered that the match between Beterbiev and Bivol ended in a deadlock of 114-114. Beterbiev now has a record of 21 wins and zero losses. Of his 21 victories, 20 came by knockout.
The fight between Beterbiev and Bivol was originally scheduled to take place on June 1st in Riyadh. However, Beterbiev postponed the fight after suffering a torn meniscus in training on May 3. At 39 years old, Beterbiev is definitely a veteran of international boxing and it will be interesting to see how many more fights he has in store.
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