Artur Beterbiev retains title and perfect KO record

After 17 months, Artur Beterbiev finally returned to the ring on Saturday night at the Megasport Sport Palace in Moscow, Russia against Adam Deines. 

Beterbiev was initially set to put his WBC and IBF light-heavyweight titles on the line against Deines in October of last year but a rib injury in training put a halt to that scrap. The bout was rescheduled for January 30 of this year but again, the date had to reset after Beterbiev tested positive for Covid-19. So, finally, Saturday night in the champion’s native Russia, Montreal-Canada-based Beterbiev got back to work.

This has been frustrating for the 35-year-old Beterbiev because while he has been a dominant fighter in the 175-pound division, inactivity has hampered his overall profile. The fight against Denies was only his 7th bout in the last 5 years.  

Beterbiev, won his first world title (IBF) back in 2016 and then added the WBC title when he beat champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his last outing in October of 2019. Through his 16 straight wins, all by KO, Beterbiev has proved incredibly powerful and dangerous from opening, until final, bell. 

Saturday night WBC/IBF light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (16-0, 16 KO’s) kept his titles, his record and his KO percentage intact with a TKO 10 over the game and gutsy Deines who dropped to 19-2-1, 10 KO’s.

Beterbiev dropped Deines in the opening round but Dienes showed a lot of determination in fighting his way back into the bout. Beterbiev continued to walk down Dienes, slowly chipping away at him before dropping him again in the 10th frame. While Dienes beat the count, his corner didn’t want to see him take anymore punishment and stepped in to stop it at 1:34 of the round. Hopefully, Beterbiev, can get busier and return to the ring before long.

Undercard action:

Super middleweight Pavel Silyagin (7-0, 4 KO’s) UD 12 Azizbek Abdugofurov (13-1, 5 KO’s).

Alexander Besputin (14-0, 10 KO’s) TKO 3 Viktor Plotnikov (33-11, 15 KO’s)

Khariton Agrba (5-0, 2 KO’s) TKO 2 Helber Rojas (13-4-2, 11 KO’s)

Vladimir Mironchikov (3-0, 3 KO’s) TKO 1 Elvin Akhundzada (4-6, 2 KO’s).

Vladimir Ivanov (4-0, 3 KO’s) TKO 1 Alexander Stepanov (2-4, 1 KO)

Rakhman Akhmetkhanov (1-0, 1 KO) TKO 2 Artem Karpets (21-16, 6 KO’s)