Artur Beterbiev fights Marcus Browne in a world light-heavyweight title defence, live on Sky Sports, in the early hours of Saturday morning
Thursday 16 December 2021 19:19, UK
Artur Beterbiev is "a force of nature" who is hunting a major fight against Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, says Top Rank president Todd DuBoef.
Undefeated Beterbiev will defend his IBF and WBC light-heavyweight championships against Marcus Browne, live on Sky Sports, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The power-punching Russian is the only world champion in the entire sport with a 100 per cent knockout record.
"Beterbiev is the opposite of Vasiliy Lomachenko stylistically," said Top Rank's DuBoef, who promotes both men.
"He is a force of nature.
"You can see his grit and his stoic behaviour.
"He does incredible strength exercises.
"Beterbiev is an absolute beast. He will hunt you down, take what you've got, and take your head off!
"He is as exciting as anyone. Everybody wants to watch him in the ring.
"The biggest thing for him is: what's next? Does he get a shot at Canelo? What are his opportunities?"
Mexican superstar Canelo is currently the undisputed super-middleweight champion and a four-division titleholder - his brave pursuit of bigger and harder tests has resulted in receiving permission from the WBC to challenge their cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu.
He has already stepped up to light-heavyweight once and knocked out Sergey Kovalev, but Beterbiev would represent the stiffest examination of Canelo's brilliance to date.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum previously said that Canelo is keen: "He has expressed interest to me about fighting Beterbiev or Joe Smith Jr.
"I would look forward to May or September, the two dates that Canelo likes to fight, that he would fight one of those light-heavyweights.
"Some will way Beterbiev is too big and powerful. Others will say Canelo is special and can handle everybody.
"It is one of the biggest fights in boxing."
Beterbiev's fearsome reputation was cemented when he floored and stopped Oleksandr Gvozdyk, who was a fellow undefeated world champion, in a gruelling fight that was viewed as 50-50 beforehand.
Saturday December 18 - Top Rank in Montreal
Artur Beterbiev vs Marcus Browne - IBF and WBC light-heavyweight titles
Saturday January 29 - BOXXER in Cardiff
Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Williams
Claressa Shields vs Ema Kozin - IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight titles
Saturday February 19 - BOXXER in Manchester
Amir Khan vs Kell Brook
Saturday February 26 - Top Rank in Glasgow
Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall - undisputed super-lightweight titles
