The highly-anticipated undisputed light-heavyweight fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol has been postponed after Beterbiev picked up a knee injury in training.
WBC, IBF and WBO champion Beterbiev was scheduled to meet WBA belt holder Bivol on June 1 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but now requires knee surgery having ruptured his meniscus.
"The plan is to reschedule Beterbiev-Bivol before the end of the year," promotersTop Rank announced on Saturday.
Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, confirmed the five-versus-five undercard between Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom and Frank Warren’s Queensberry, including Deontay Wilder’s heavyweight bout against Zhilei Zang, will still go ahead as expected.
“Wishing my brother Artur a speedy recovery,” Alalshikh wrote. “However, the 5v5 event is still on for June 1st.”
Beterbiev is the only world champion who has a 100 per cent knockout ratio, winning all 20 of his professional fights. The Russian-Canadian’s last bout was against British boxer Callum Smith in Canada, where he won with a seventh-round stoppage.
Meanwhile, Bivol is also undefeated in 22 professional bouts in his career, winning 11 by knockout. The Russian beat Lyndon Arthur by unanimous decision in Riyadh last December in his last fight.
