Fans believe unified light heavyweight king Artur Beterbiev should be regarded as the No 1 pound for pound boxer in the world after beating Callum Smith on Saturday.
Beterbiev defended his WBC, IBF and WBO world titles with a seventh-round TKO win against former world champion Smith on Saturday evening at Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada.
The 38-year-old star remains boxing’s only world champion with a 100 per cent knockout ratio by handing Smith his first knockdown and stoppage loss.
As a result, fans believe Beterbiev should be regarded as the No 1 pound for pound boxer in the world – claiming a ‘fight with him would be like scrapping an armoured vehicle’.
One fan took to social media after the fight to say: ‘Beterbiev should be the Number 1 pound for pound boxer in the World, KO’d Cloud in his 6th fight KO’d Gvozdyk who was coming off a brutal KO win against Stevenson done a quick job on Joe Smith who went 12 rounds with Bivol mark my words he will KO Bivol within 5 rounds.’
Fans believe unified light heavyweight king Artur Beterbiev (left) should be regarded as the No 1 pound for pound boxer in the world after beating Callum Smith (right) on Saturday
Beterbiev (pictured standing next to promoter Bob Arum) was all smiles after facing Smith
Russia’s Dmitry Bivol (pictured) is set to face Beterbiev in Saudi Arabia in a unification bout
Another added: ‘Fighting Beterbiev would be like scrapping with an armoured vehicle.
‘He just keeps ramming into you. Even the punches that for other boxers would be range-finders come in like sledgehammers. Meanwhile, everything you throw back just bounces off him. Scary.’
One fan said: ‘The most destructive boxer in the world isn’t Wilder or Gervonta Davis, it is Artur Beterbiev. He finishes them all. Hopefully the dummies at Ring Magazine will finally add him in the p4p list even though he should have been on there.’
Another boxing fan took to social media to write: ‘Beterbiev hits like a truck and his defense is on point.’
Meanwhile, others went on to discuss a possible bout with Dmitry Bivol – claiming it’s the only fight in the division people want to see.
One fan said: ‘Bivol vs Beterbiev is the only fight we need in this division and has been for a few years. No one else gets near either of them.’
Another added: ‘If Beterbiev and Bivol do fight in the summer, Beterbiev should be the favourite. He’s dominated every fight that he has faced and the wins over Gvozdyk, Browne and the two Smiths are more than what Bivol has’.
Speaking after Beterbiev’s fight with Smith, promoter Bob Arum touched on a potential bout with Bivol.
He said: ‘It’s not done yet. But absolutely we want to do it. I’ll be talking to my friend His Excellency [Saudi Advisor] Turki Alalshikh. I know he wants to do it, but Ramadan is coming.
‘So, about three months after the end Ramadan we’ll be ready to fight Dmitry Bivol, probably in Riyadh.’
Beterbiev added: ‘Yes, of course [I want the Bivol fight]. I need another belt. It would mean a lot to me.’
