By Elisinio Castillo
According to light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera, he accepted an offer to face IBF world champion Artur Beterbiev, who recently signed a promotional pact with Top Rank.
Barrera is waiting to receive word if Beterbiev has accepted the contest on his end.
"I have agreed to fight against Artur Beterbiev. Now I just hope he accepts it too," Barrera said.
Barrera has been out of the ring since winning a twelve round unanimous decision over Sean Monaghan in November.
After the fight with Monaghan, Barrera became a promotional free agent as his contract with Main Events was up.
Barrera fought for the WBA world title, when he faced Dmitry Bivol back in March of 2018. He was stopped in the twelfth and final round at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Beterbiev's promotional battles, and his lack of activity, has affected him. He's only fought once in 2017 and once in 2018. His last fight came in October, when he knocked out Callum Johnson in four rounds. Beterbiev was also down and hurt in the fight.
Last year, the Russian puncher had lost a court battle to break his promotional contract with Yvon Michel of Canada.
After the court decision's a deal was made for a multi-fight co-promotional deal with Eddie Hearn, who is tied in with streaming service DAZN.
And then Beterbiev was being lined up to fight Joe Smith.
But there were issues with the entire promotional pact with Hearn, which allowed Beterbiev to jumped over to Top Rank, who are aligned with ESPN. Hearn was forced to change his own plans, by signing up Bivol - who is now going to face Joe Smith on March 9 in New York.
2023-10-22 17:22:51
