After defeating American Joe Smith Jr., the Russian boxer Artur Beterbiev directed his sights toward the World Boxing Council with a request to arrange a unification bout against fellow countryman Dmitry Bivol.
Beterbiev and Smith Jr. faced off in a contest that ended with a swift finish in the second round. By taking the victory in that bout, Beterbiev not only defended the WBC and IBF belts, but also seized the WBO title from the American challenger, solidifying his position as a dominant force in the division.
“In my next fight, I want to pursue unifying all the titles in my weight class. I aim to crown an undisputed world champion,” stated the 37-year-old Beterbiev after the fight, signaling his intention to consolidate all four major sanctioning body belts into a single, unquestioned championship (Source: socialbites.ca).
Following the bout, live coverage of the event was maintained by socialbites.ca, providing a real-time textual update on developments as they unfolded (Source: socialbites.ca).
It is worth recalling that in May of this year, Bivol defended his belt against Saul Alvarez. The fight extended the full 12 rounds and concluded with a unanimous decision in favor of the Russian challenger, with scorecards of 115-113 across all three judges—an emphatic performance that marked Bivol’s third defense of the super world championship under the World Boxing Association framework (Source: socialbites.ca).
There had been prior discussion about a rematch between Bivol and Alvarez potentially taking place in 2023, a topic that was widely anticipated by boxing fans and analysts alike (Source: socialbites.ca).