IBF starting over with Beterbiev opponent selection

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow

IBF has had zero luck in finding a contender in their top 15 ratings that has been willing to accept a title shot against IBF World light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev (12-0. 12 KOs).

They’ve gone through the rankings up to #9 IBF Meng Fanlong, who reportedly wasn’t interested in the fight. So, the IBF the will putting together a new top 10 rankings next week, according to Beterbiev’s promoter Yvon Michel to see if they can find one of them that is willing to agree to the fight.

Beterbiev already knocked out #10 IBF Enrico Koelling in the 12th round in his last fight on November 11 to capture the vacant International Boxing Federation 175 lb. tile, so he’s obviously not a good option for the 2-time Russian Olympian. The IBF recently ordered Beterbiev to face unbeaten challenger Marcus Browne in his next defense.

Unfortunately for Beterbiev, Browne opted to go in the direction of WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. Browne is rated #1 with the WBO, and he feels that’s the better option for him. The IBF then worked through the next row of contenders until they got to Koelling, and they’ve now opted to start over to try and find at least one fighter wiling to face Beterbiev for a title shot. Beterbiev might be too dangerous for his own good. Some of these fighters are rated by the other sanctioning bodies as well, so they don’t need to take the fight with Beterbiev, because they’ve got other options for title shots in the future.

None of the top contenders has stepped up to agree to fight Beterbiev. It’s almost an unheard of for contenders to turn down title shots, as this is what they work for their entire careers. The IBF’s decision to restructure their top 15 rankings is going to result in the fighters that turned the fight down with Beterbiev being pushed down in the rankings. I doubt that they’ll care too awfully much. If they wanted the fight with Beterbiev, they would have accepted it.

Michel said this on his Facebook on Wednesday about the IBF’s search for a challenger willing to face Beterbiev:

”Latest news: The Chinese Meng Fanlong, ranked 9th by the IBF, refused the invitation to fight in a mandatory defense fight against the champion world heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev]. As the next one on the list was German Enrico Koelling, already defeated by knockout by Beterbiev, the International Boxing Federation] stopped the process. The New Jersey sanctioning body will publish a new ranking this week or at the latest next week, which will result from a new process.”

Here’s the current IBF top 15:

1. Not rated

2. Not rated

3. Marcus Browne

4. Juergen Braehmer

5. Dominic Boesel

6. Frank Buglioni

7. Anthony Yarde

8. Travis Reeves

9. Meng Fanlong

10. Enrico Koelling

11. Karo Murat

12. Michael Lee
13. Sean Monaghan

14. Blake Caparello

15. Robert Parzecezewski

There are several good contenders in that list in Yarde, Browne and Braehmer. None of them have accepted the fight with Beterbiev. It’ll be interesting to see what the IBF’s new top 15 rankings looks like. It would be unfortunate if Beterbiev ends up with a journeyman as his next challenger. If the IBF winds up with a lot of lesser fighters in their top 15, Beterbiev is likely to hold onto his IBF light heavyweight title for years to come unless he takes part in a unification fight and is beaten by one of the other champions.

Beterbiev hasn’t been all that active since 2017. He was out of boxing for 1 year from June 2015 to June 2016 because of a shoulder injury. Beterbiev came back from the injury and defeated Ezquiel Osvaldo Maderna and Isidro Ranoni Prieto in 2016. Beterbiev then was out of the ring for 11 months until defeating Enrico Koelling by a 12th round knockout on November 11, 2017. Since then, Beterbiev has been inactive for the last five months waiting for his promoter to find him an opponent for his first defense of his IBF light heavyweight crown.

At this point even when a challenger is eventually found, Beterbiev likely won’t be back in the ring to defend against that person for two months. We’re probably talking about June or July before Beterbiev finally gets back in the ring to make a defense of his IBF title. It would be unfortunate if Beterbiev is stuck fighting a low level opponent when he does make his defense, because he won’t get much attention from rolling over an over-matched guy.

These guys would be ideal for Beterbiev right now:

• Isaac Chilemba

• Felix Valera

• Joe Smith Jr.

• Andrzej Fonfara

• Callum Johnson

• Oleksandr Gvozdyk

• Eleider Alvarez

Callum Johnson has been scoring a lot of quick 1st round knockouts lately. Beterbiev’s promoter Yvon Michel would do well if he could line up a fight against Johnson if he’s included in the IBF’s new top 15 rankings next week. Johnson is promoted by Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing. Johnson likes to come out slugging right out of the gate, and he would make it interesting for Beterbiev for as long as the fight lasts. Hearn is interested in matching Johnson against Yarde, but it doesn’t appear that fight will happen. Beterbiev would be a great option for Johnson if he’s included in the IBF’s new top 15 rankings. With the way Johnson has been knocking guys out, I don’t know why he wouldn’t be added to the top 15 for Beterbiev to fight.

Beterbiev’s promoter could try overpaying challengers to see if one of them will step up and agree to the fight. That might be an option. Beterbiev is a solid fighter, and only the top guys would appear to have enough talent to give him problems.