Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol have their fight date set for Saturday, June 1 live from Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Undefeated light heavyweight champions battle it out for the undisputed title.
Montreal-based Artur Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) is a unified WBC, WBO and IBF light heavyweight champion. The 39-year-old was in action in January in Quebec City, where he stopped former super middleweight champion Callum Smith and retained his belts. In June 2022, boxing’s only world champion with 100% knockout ratio, TKO’d former WBO 175-pound champion Joe Smith Jr in the second round of their championship unification.
Long-reigning WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitriy Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs) won his previous bout last December in Riyadh by unanimous decision against Lyndon Arthur. In 2022, the 33-year-old native of Tokmak, Kyrgyzstan similarly defeated Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez and reigning undisputed super middleweight king Canelo Alvarez.
The fight was announced by Saudi Arabia’s Minister and the current Chairman of General Authority for Entertainment Turki Alalshikh on “The MMA Hour“.
The Beterbiev vs Bivol clash is set to crown the first undisputed light heavyweight champion of the four belt era. In 1999, Roy Jones Jr. became the undisputed light heavyweight champion by unifying the WBC, WBA and IBF titles.