Beterbiev stops Gvozdyk to become unified champ
I was on hand Friday night at the Liacouras Center in Philadephia to witness the light-heavyweight championship contest which saw Artur Beterbiev stop Oleksandr Gvozdyk in the 10th round to unify the WBC/IBF light heavyweight titles.
A raucous crowd of 3,283 full of prominent boxing media and figures to witness the back and forth matchup, which lived up to it’s billing as a 50-50 fight. Even during the contest, scoring could have been seen either way.
One thing that was very apparent from the opening bell was that while Gvozdyk wanted to box, Beterbiev was going to make him pay with power shots that echoed through the arena.
Beterbiev knocked down Gvozdyk three times in the 10th, as referee Gary Rosato immediately waved off the fight following the third knockdown.
? ANOTHER LOOK ?
Ringside view of that final round and your newest unified champ, @ABeterbiev ?#BeterbievNail pic.twitter.com/AfJvCtJSxt
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) October 19, 2019
Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs) was behind on two of the three judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage. We previewed on our podcast leading up to the fight how this would have been a close one, and if you checked boxing twitter during this fight, you’d see the closeness of it.
Beterbiev, after the fight, explained how big the stage was for him.
“For this moment, it’s my most important fight,” Beterbiev said. “I had big work to prepare for this fight.”
“We work in the gym We work hard, and we have some targets,” Beterbiev said. “My first target, second target and other one comes soon.”
Next up for Beterbiev in the ring for him doesn’t matter, and he confirmed as much post-fight.
“It doesn’t matter {who I fight next.} Anyone. I’m focused on title, not on name.”
Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, stated after the contest that Beterbiev would make a mandatory defense against Falong Meng to Mike Coppinger of The Athletic.
After that bout, there would be a possibility of taking on WBA champion at 175 Dmitry Bivol. That contest could also take place in China, where it would have the most commercial appeal.
Marquis Johns is a unknown humorist and avid boxing fan. His love for the sweet science goes back to when matches were 15 rounds and has been covering fights since closed-circuit pay-per-views. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth is not only a quote by Mike Tyson, it's also a pretty good reminder to keep your guard up.
