Beterbiev vs Johnson is done, October 6

The Chilling One, by Chilling Upset.

 

Johnson is really really good, don't be so sure about that. He's IMO the best LHW the UK has to offer, and sadly has suffered from the same kind of poor career management and long layoffs as Beterbiev has, they both will have a lot of pent up frustrations to unleash on each other, either way it goes, I doubt it'll last long, but both have a good enough chin, I doubt they'll be laid out cold.

 

Even though Johnson looks very Scottish, has a Scottish sounding name, and represented Scotland as an amateur (he has a Scottish grandmother), including winning gold at the Commonwealth games and captained the Scottish team, he's actually English. AFAIA, Beterbiev, has no Scottish blood or ties to Scotland, though.

 

Anthony Joshua’s September meeting with Alexander Povetkin isn’t the only title fight planned for Eddie Hearn’s slate of bouts on DAZN.

The promoter told THE RING on Tuesday that he’s cut a deal to place his fighter Callum Johnson’s light heavyweight title challenge of Artur Beterbiev on the streaming platform on Oct. 6.

The IBF mandatory title bout was set to be auctioned off at a purse bid on Tuesday, but Hearn was able to complete a deal with Yyon Michel, who promotes Beterbiev.

Beterbiev, a 33-year-old Russian puncher who resides in Montreal, was embroiled in a legal dispute with Michel, but the Canadian promoter won the battle in court earlier this month.

Top Rank hoped to sign Beterbiev (12-0, 12 knockouts), and had even promoted his victory over Enrico Koelling in November after they won a purse bid that Michel elected not to participate in.

“I have not met with Beterbiev but we are communicating through his management’s team,” Michel told ESPN. “After the court decision I had an excellent and cordial meeting with them.

“Our contract has been declared valid [until 2021]. We both have obligations and responsibilities and we will continue to honor it. You can expect the IBF light heavyweight champion to be very active defending his title or in unifications.”

Michel promotes lineal light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, as well as Eleider Alvarez, who will challenge division kingpin Sergey Kovalev in August on HBO.

With three of the top 175-pounders in the world fighting under the GYM banner, there should be plenty of meaningful light heavyweight title fights coming to Canada.

But first, Beterbiev must deal with Johnson (17-0, 12 KOs), a 32-year-old Brit who is coming off a first-round TKO of Frank Buglioni.