Just realized it now. As we all know, Beterbiev won the Ring 175 championship against Gvozdyk back in late 2019, defended it against Deines in 2020 during the covid period and must have lost it fighting Browne late 2021 of course, but wasn't that fight sceduled in time (2 years). Or was Browne just ranked too low to qualify as a legal defence? Still a bit weird for the actual champion, or at least the closest to it, to be ranked 2nd on most lists now.
They have Bivol at 1 ahead of him with the Championship vacant, although they still show Smith JR as WBO at time of writing: Ratings - The Ring (ringtv.com) Could they have put Bivol over him on the basis of the Canelo victory?
Beterbiev never won the Ring. Stevenson was stripped because he didn't defend it against top opposition and when Gvozdyk won, he only won the WBC title. Beterbiev does have the lineal belt however.
Yeah, the canelo victoru has given Bivol loads of brownie points of course. But still it means they must have stripped him at one point on basis of their ruleset, and then decided he's a lesser fighter in the rankings as Bivol is, despite then somehow narrowly breaking (if he actually did) their defence rules.
I wonder if they'll put Beterbiev ahead of Bivol now on the basis of his destruction of the number 3 ranked fighter? Regardless, it's set up nicely for the winner of Bivol v Beterbiev (pipe down Antony Yarde pls) to be the Ring, Lineal, and 4 belt undisputed LHW.
Hopefully it happens. Although seems like we will see Russia vs The UK in terms of matchmaking. Bivol-Buatsi & Beterbiev-Yarde.
Booo! We need to get Artur and Dimitry in together ASAP. Neither Buatsi or Yarde have earned the right to hold this fight up. They should be fighting each other to establish which one of them gets a shot at the undisputed champ. Instead they'll be used to build up the big fight. Boo!
The same dynamic may be at play here as that which saw Brook v Khan delayed until both were effectively retired. They figure the money will always be there for a domestic clash, whilst opportunities to get on a PPV with an elite guy like Bivol or Beterbiev is more fleeting. So they pursue the latter first and gamble on still being able to spin out a 'battle of britain' narrative once the opportunities have faded away elsewhere. Plus there's all the nonsense between the promoters and broadcasters.
