Artur Beterbiev caught Canelo’s Eye: Bob Arum Expects War

Top Rank CEO, Bob Arum anticipates an epic battle between Artur Beterbiev and Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez if Beterbiev defeats Marcus Browne.

Arum predicts a war between the Russian and the Mexican Star. “Some will say Beterbiev is too big and powerful. Others will say Canelo is special and can handle everybody,” Arum said.

The fearsome Artur Beterbiev might catch the attention of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez for his next fight, says the promoter.

Beterbiev, the undefeated light-heavyweight champion, will put his WBC and IBF titles, and his 100 percent knockout ratio, at stake against Marcus Brown in Saturday's bout.

He could become a target for Canelo, the pound-for-pound superstar who is rising through the weight divisions in search of more audacious challenges.

Arum, who represents Beterbiev, insisted that Canelo has shown interest: “Yes, I know that he would.”

“Eddy Reynoso is a great trainer and is very close to Canelo.”

“I have known Canelo very well since he was a young man.”

“He has expressed interest to be about fighting Beterbiev or Joe Smith Jr.”

“I would look forward to May or September, the two dates that Canelo likes to fight, that he would fight one of those light-heavyweights.”

The four-weight world champion Canelo has been permitted by the WBC to enter the fifth division. Canelo would challenge Ilunga Makabu to make his name in the cruiserweight division.

However, since Makabu is already scheduled to defend his WBC title against Thabiso Mchunu, Arum has raised doubts about Canelo's chance to pull off a difficult fight.

“I think they’ll have to abandon it,” said Arum.

Canelo has already stepped into the light-heavyweight division, defeating Sergey Kovalev and winning the WBO title.

“Canelo is a risk-taker and that makes him so popular.” Arum continued, “It would be a massive fight because the betting action would go both ways.”

“It is one of the biggest fights in boxing.” 

Taking on Beterbiev, who is in his prime and has defeated every opponent he has ever faced, is a far more difficult task.

Beterbiev demonstrated his threat by defeating Oleksandr Gvozdyk in Oct 2019, a world champion at the time who was also undefeated.

Photo credit: record , essentiallysports