
Artur Beterbiev of Montreal, Quebec has become the undisputed light heavyweight world boxing champion (175 pounds). The Russian born-boxer who is a Canadian citizen, represents Canada internationally, and has been in Montreal the last 11 years, defeated Dmitry Bivol of Russia in a majority decision in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Beterbiev now holds down the World Boxing Association (WBA) super champion title, the World Boxing Council (WBC) title, International Boxing Federation (IBF) title, World Boxing Organization (WBO) title, and The Ring Magazine Title. Heading into the bout, Beterbiev had the WBC, IBF, and WBO belt with Bivol having the WBA belt.
In Saturday’s fight, Beterbiev won by majority decision. Of the three judges who judged the fight, two judges ruled in favour of Beterbiev by scores of 15-113, and 116-112. While a third judge believed the match between Beterbiev and Bivol ended in a 114-114 deadlock. Beterbiev now has a record of 21 wins and zero losses. Of his 21 wins, 20 have come via knockout.
The fight between Beterbiev and Bivol was originally to take place on June 1 in Riyadh. However, Beterbiev postponed the match after rupturing his meniscus in training on May 3. At 39 years of age, Beterbiev is definitely a veteran when it comes to international boxing and it will be interesting to see how many more bouts he has in store.