The highly anticipated undisputed light heavyweight world title showdown between WBC/IBF/WBO champion Artur Beterbiev and WBA ruler Dmitry Bivol — scheduled for Saturday, June 1 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — has been postponed after the 39-year-old Beterbiev suffered a ruptured meniscus in training.
The plan is to reschedule Beterbiev-Bivol before the end of the year. Meanwhile, it was confirmed that the accompanying 5 vs. 5 Tournament between Matchroom and Queensberry fighters including Deontay Wilder vs. Zhilei Zhang will still take place on the June 1 date.
Now, that’s some bull pucky! Man, I was looking forward to this fight! I was about to declare a national boxing holiday in my house, so there would no interupptions. Dang!
I just read a torn meniscus could take 6 months to heal for a person over 35. Then a 2 month boxing camp. The fight happening this year might be in doubt. Very disappointing it won’t happen June 1
We’re looking late first quarter next year at the earliest. That’s a long time out for Betwrbiev. Mind you, he’s a warrior in and out of the ring and does not abuse his body from what we know of so recovery should be above average. This is where you throw in stem cells and HGH. You get a pass. There’s 100 million at stake.
Plus Bivol will most likely take another fight during the interim.
Serious bull pucky!
Now this is heartbreaking as fuck I was really looking forward to this
oh no! that was the best fight of the year .
Bivol should fight Anthony Yarde – Who knows if the Betterbiev fight happens? We never had Kovalev vs Stevenson and now this…
Screw Yarde! He has his shot already and got beat up!
Yarde has been Betterbiev’s toughest fight – he comes to fight and has serious power.
I am a big fan of both fighters. It was without a doubt the fight I was most looking forward to. Artur does some weird exercises, I watched like a 15 minute video on YouTube. Check it out. It seems like half of these mega fights get postponed. It must have to do with these training methods. Fighters have swim and kettlebell coaches now, and don’t know how to jab. I mean the fighters in the 40s, 50s, and 60s fought every week! Sugar Ray lost to LaMotta and then beat the hell out of him 3 weeks later. I don’t understand how this consistently happens nowadays when these guys fight 2-3 times a year max.
Yes you are correct. Fighters these days place to much importance on weights , strength and conditioning coaches , and less importance on skills. Fighters don’t even jab anymore!!!
They probably fought injured back in the day. They didn’t even know what a torn meniscus was. They would just say “my knee’s a little sore, it’ll pass” Those guys were nails. Foolish, but nails.
Boxers steadfastly avoided lifting weights for decades as it was known (ironically) to diminish punching power and stamina. As for kettlebells, they’re backwards Soviet-era technology, ergonomically incorrect and lend themselves to swinging and other dangerous forms of exercises.
Ohhhh no. Sh*t! At age 39, to rupture your meniscus competing at the elite level can be career ending or seriously limiting. I’m heartbroken for Beterbiev. I’m saying 6 months out even with today’s procedures, but that’s just a guess I’m sure others here are more familiar with this type of injury.
We will know how bad it is by keeping an eye on the Vegas lines. If it was a pick’em, Nicole just pulled ahead by at least a step.
damn i was looking foward to this fight
We all were.
Oh, I wish Arthur a speedy recovery.
Bivol vs David Benavidez be a great fight in the making in near future
Benavidez wants a big money fight, he should take on bivol and prove himself! Even though benavidez is a heavyweight, my money is on bivol!
When I first saw this, I said WTF!!
After taking a minute to settle myself, I now indicate let’s hope Beterbiev fully heals from this injury. If so, I will hang in there for this great looking scrap.
Ruptured meniscus? Dang. that really sucks. I had a radial tear in mine and in took two years to really be able to do spontaneous athletic pivots. Leg extensions and Leg Presses are OK, but Beteriev is going to have a hard time manuevering on that knee when he gets back in the ring. One of the worst possible things to happen. Hopefully it’s not severe and he gets a repair. Just don’t let them take the torn part out, because that leads to knee replacement eventually.
Crap, I don’t think this fight happens now. All that stress, strain, and impact from years of training and fighting. Even an impeccably conditioned athlete is at increased risk for these types of injuries at Beterbiev’s age. The body just doesn’t recover as quickly as it does when it’s younger. And if there are PED’s involved, that could also break the body down over time. That super sucks. As others have mentioned, I hope we get Bivol-Benavidez instead.
For someone who ruptured a knee quad tendon at age 48, it took me 3 years before I was back to running full speed and recovered mentally. Chose to give up basketball, but still play competitive tournament softball. Beterbiev a little younger at 39 than I was, but I can’t see him being 100 % by the end of the year.
I hope it won’t end up like Cotto vs Martinez if the fight happens.
Nobody beats father time.. cracks from all the hard training and fights have taken its toll. Now need to pay the piper and fight father time..
Bad injury especially when your pushing 40 so the recovery time is a solid 4-6 months. Prayers for a speedy recovery.
Second time he has been injured before a fight, the first against Calum Smith. Makes you wonder. But what bugs me more, is that does this mean the other 3 interesting matches are not going to go on on June 1? this was basically what happened when Fury got hurt.
Damn, I bet Bivol got the best sleep he’s had all year last night.
This just makes the Benvenidez Gvozdyc fight that much more interesting, and it was already an interesting fight.
I’m sure they were BOTH hoping Bivol would win.
BENAVIDEZ :p
No, No, Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Can someone please tell me how a boxer can rupture a meniscus during training? This seems like an odd injury for a boxer. These types of injuries never happened in the old days.