Artur Beterbiev-Yunieski Gonzalez To Be Pursued?

By Gregory Stangrit

Light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9KOs) is looking for a new challenger for his IBF final eliminator on November 28th at the Videotron Centre in Quebec, Canada. The event will be headlined by James DeGale defending his IBF super middleweight championship against Canadian superstar Lucian Bute.

Beterbiev was ordered to face several names in the IBF eliminator and many of them pass on the opportunity. Sullivan Barrera was willing to take the chance, but legal issue prevented him from entering Canada and he dropped out.

One name being mentioned as a possible candidate to face Beterbiev is Cuban contender Yunieski Gonzalez (16-1, 12KOs), who lost a very close ten round decision to former champion Jean Pascal on July 25th. There were a lot of people who felt Gonzalez had done enough to win the fight.

Gonzalez is ranked at #11 by the IBF and appears to be the only fighter available when going down the list of the top ten.

Whoever Beterbiev ends up fighting, the winner will become the mandatory challenger to WBA/IBF/WBO champion Sergey Kovalev.

Gregory Strangrit covers boxing for Allboxing.ru.