Trainer: After Kovalev-Ward Fight - Beterbiev is Next Guy at 175

By Edward Chaykovsky

Trainer John Scully, who works with top light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs), expects big things in the very near future for his fighter.

Beterbiev is scheduled to return before the year is out, when he takes on Paraguay slugger and reigning WBC Latino light heavyweight champion Isidro Ranoni Prieto (26-1-3, 22 KOs) on December 23 at Casino de Lac Leamy in Quebec.

Beterbiev is hoping to land a world title shot after this outing. He ranked in the top ten by all of the sanctioning bodies - International Boxing Federation (IBF) #2, World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Association (WBA) #3, and World Boxing Organization (WBO) #4.

Beterbiev was in action back on June 4th at the Bell Centre against Argentine Olympian Ezequiel Maderna, who failed to get through the fourth round.

The biggest fight in the light heavyweight division in several years takes place next month, when IBF/WBO/WBA champion Sergey Kovalev defends his belts against Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Next year, Beterbiev will be in line for a mandatory shot at the winner of that fight.

"I was just up in Montreal, I just came home a few days ago. I was working with Artur Beterbiev. He was supposed to be fighting in a couple of weeks but the fight got canceled until December, so I came back home. I’ll be going back up next month. He’s ranked right now in the top two by all four sanctioning bodies, so he’s getting ready to have something big come up. He’s a very big prospect and I think after the Andre Ward and Kovalev fight, Artur is going to be the next guy at 175," Scully told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.

Beterbiev was a beast in the amateurs and his promoter Yvon Michel is fast-tracking him to a world title. He even beat Kovalev in the amateur ranks.Scully wants him to have at least one or two more fights and then he's ready to let Beterbiev go against anyone in the division.

"I’d like to see him have one or two fights against the top level contenders — I’d love to see him go twelve rounds. I don’t know if anyone could go twelve rounds with Artur at this point but I’d like to see it, just so he gets the proper seasoning and preparations for those ultimate biggest names," Scully said.

"In terms of power and discipline, he’s right there. He’s been in boxing his whole life, he had three hundred amateur fights, he beat Kovalev as an amateur, he beat Ismayl Sillah as an amateur. He’s very good, he’s sparring with good guys and they have his utmost respect from the gym sessions. From what I can see, he’s similar to Kostya Tzyu and those guys where they don’t necessarily need a lot of seasoning as a pro like other guys because they are so far advanced and they had so many amateur fights."