Beterbiev suffers knee injury, Bivol fight for undisputed title postponed

The '5 vs. 5' bouts that make up the undercard will still go forward

Dan Rafael

May 04, 2024

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Three-belt unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev has suffered a knee injury, forcing his highly anticipated showdown with WBA titlist Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed crown to be postponed on Friday.

Bivol suffered a “ruptured meniscus in training,” Top Rank announced.

Lineal champion Beterbiev, who also holds the WBC, WBO and IBF 175-pound titles, and Bivol were scheduled to fight to determine the first-ever four-belt undisputed champion in division history on June 1 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The plan is to reschedule Beterbiev-Bivol before the end of the year, according to Top Rank but Beterbiev will be sidelined until at least September.

The “5 vs. 5” bouts matching fighters from the Queensberry Promotions stable against fighters from Matchroom Boxing’s that were to serve as the undercard will go on as planned.

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“After receiving today’s news about Beterbiev’s injury, we will be postponing the Beterbiev vs. Bivol fight scheduled for June 1st until later this year,” Turki Alalshikh, the Saudi Arabian government official, who runs the country’s General Entertainment Authority, posted to social media. “Wishing my brother Artur a speedy recovery. However, the 5v5 event is still on for June 1st.”

This is not the first Beterbiev fight to be postponed due to his knee problems. After he knocked out Joe Smith Jr. in the second round in their three-belt unification fight in June 2022, he was due to make a mandatory defense against Anthony Yarde that October. But after Beterbiev underwent what was termed “minor knee surgery” the fight was postponed January 2023 and Beterbiev won the fight of the year contender by eighth-round knockout in Yarde’s hometown of London.

Beterbiev-Bivol has been one of the most anticipated fights in boxing, a bout matching undefeated pound-for-pound-ranked elites who have both held world titles in the division since 2017 and been on a collision course.

The winner would have become not only the first undisputed light heavyweight champion of the four-belt era but the first undisputed champion in the division in 25 years — since Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr. shut out Reggie Johnson (120-106 on all three scorecards) to unify the belts in the three-belt era in 1999.

Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs), 39, a two-time Russian Olympian, who is now a Canadian citizen fighting out of Montreal, is coming off a seventh-round knockout of WBC mandatory challenger Callum Smith in January. Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs), 33, of Russia, cruised to a shutout decision over Lyndon Arthur in December in Riyadh.

The “5 vs. 5” bouts that will comprise the card are a highly significant heavyweight bout between former titlist Deontay Wilder and former interim titlist Zhilei Zhang; Filip Hrgovic against Daniel Dubois in what will be sanctioned for the soon-to-be-vacant IBF heavyweight title; WBA featherweight titlist Raymond Ford defending against Nick Ball; Austin Williams against Hamzah Sheeraz in a fight between promising undefeated middleweights; and a light heavyweight fight between former title challenger Craig Richards and the up-and-coming Willy Hutchinson.

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