Pick It: Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol
When to Watch: The main event broadcast will air on Saturday, October 12 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time (11 p.m. BST). The undercard broadcast will begin at noon Eastern Time (5 p.m. BST).
How to watch: In the United States, the main event will stream on ESPN+ and the undercard will be on DAZN. In the United Kingdom, this will be a pay-per-view available via DAZN, Sky Sports, and TNT.
Why to Watch: This is a fight between the two best light heavyweights in the world.
This is a matchup between a heavy-handed puncher who has knocked out everyone he’s faced and a skilled boxer who stymied an all-time great.
Beterbiev-Bivol will also decide the undisputed champion of the 175-pound division.
This is a fight that’s been needed for years and is finally here, headlining at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Bivol won the WBA’s interim title back in May 2016 and then was elevated in the fall of 2017, after Andre Ward retired and Badou Jack vacated his secondary “regular” title.
Beterbiev earned the IBF belt in November 2017, added the WBC and lineal titles in 2019, and unified with the WBO belt in 2022.
In the years since, Bivol has stopped Sullivan Barrera, scored decisions over Isaac Chilemba, Jean Pascal, Joe Smith, Lenin Castillo, Craig Richards, Umar Salamov, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (the aforementioned all-time great), Gilberto Ramirez and Lyndon Arthur. That 2022 campaign, with the wins over Canelo and Ramirez, earned Bivol recognition as Fighter of the Year.
In Bivol’s past appearance, when the fight with Beterbiev was postponed from their original date in June because Beterbiev needed surgery, Bivol remained busy with a sixth-round technical knockout of Malik Zinad. Bivol – a 33-year-old Russian born in Kyrgyzstan living in Indio, California – is 23-0 (12 KOs).
Beterbiev, meanwhile, dominated Enrico Koelling for the vacant IBF belt and proceeded to take out Callum Johnson (KO4), Radivoje Kalajdzic (TKO5), Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the WBC and lineal titles (TKO10), Adam Deines (TKO10), Marcus Browne (KO9), Joe Smith (TKO2), Anthony Yarde (TKO8) and Callum Smith (TKO7).
The 39-year-old Russian lives in Montreal and is 20-0 (20 KOs). He’s not been overly active, fighting once in 2022 and once in 2023. His win over Smith was in January, so this will be his second appearance of the year. Beterbiev is also coming off knee surgery to repair a ruptured meniscus. There was a shoulder injury in 2015, a rib injury in 2020, and a leg procedure in 2022. He also suffered an infection after dental surgery in 2023.
There has been no sign of him slowing down, though. He continues to perform at a high level. He tends to be outworked earlier but he has never failed to pick up steam, come on strong and break his opponent down.
Will Bivol be able to out-box Beterbiev? Will Beterbiev be able to do to Bivol what he’s done to everyone else?
This fight is plenty worthwhile on its own, but there are also future implications. Will the winner defend against contenders such as David Benavidez, Joshua Buatsi and David Morrell? Will Canelo come up from super middleweight to take on the victor – especially if that means a rematch with Bivol? And, win or lose, will Bivol move down to a catchweight for the sake of the payday against Canelo?
There’s also a packed undercard:
Jai Opetaia-Jack Massey: Opetaia is making a voluntary defense of his IBF and lineal cruiserweight titles against Massey. He will owe a mandatory title defense against the unheralded Huseyin Cinkara, and he has his eyes set on much bigger bouts – namely, the winner of next month’s unification matchup between Chris Billam-Smith and Gilberto Ramirez.
Opetaia (25-0, 19 KO) first won the title and lineal championship in July 2022, when he defeated Mairis Briedis via unanimous decision. But Opetaia, a 29 year old from Sydney, Australia, vacated the sanctioning body belt after one defense in order to face Ellis Zorro in December 2023. He wound up having a rematch with Briedis in May, with the vacant IBF title on the line, and won another unanimous decision.
Massey is 22-2 (12 KOs) and coming off a decision win in June over Isaac Chamberlain. His two losses were via decision, against the then-cruiserweight prospect Richard Riakporhe in 2019 and at heavyweight against Joseph Parker in early 2023. He would no doubt love to disrupt Opetaia’s plans. The 31-year-old from outside of Manchester would like his countryman Billam-Smith in particular. Doing that fight with a few world titles on the line would be even better.
Skye Nicolson-Raven Chapman: Nicolson and Chapman aren’t the first female professional boxers to compete in Saudi Arabia – that was Ramla Ali and Crystal Garcia Nova in 2022, when Ali won via knockout – but this will be the first-ever women’s title fight in the Kingdom.
Nicolson fought in the 2020 Olympics and then entered the professional ranks in 2022. The 29-year-old from Yatala, Queensland, Australia, won the WBC’s interim featherweight belt in her eighth fight. When Amanda Serrano ditched the full WBC title, Nicolson then picked up the vacant belt in April via a wide decision victory over Sarah Mahfoud, and defended it in July with a shutout of Dyana Vargas. She is 11-0 (1 KO).
Chapman is 9-0 (2 KOs). The 30-year-old from High Wycombe in the United Kingdom is coming off a shutout in July of the 10-0 Yohana Sarabia.
Fabio Wardley-Frazer Clarke: This is a rematch of the entertaining fight these two unbeaten heavyweight prospects had in March, that ended in a draw.
Wardley, a 29-year-old from Ipswich, is 17-0-1 (16 KOs). Clarke, a 33-year-old from Burton-on-Trent who earned a bronze medal at super heavyweight in the 2020/2021 Olympics, is 8-0-1 (6 KOs).
Given how appealing the heavyweight division is at the moment, and that many of those heavyweights are based in the U.K., the winner of this fight will undoubtedly move on to bigger things. The loser should also have some good options available.
Chris Eubank Jr.-Kamil Szeremeta: A win for Eubank could take him in a number of directions – towards a middleweight title fight against the likes of Carlos Adames, Janibek Alimkhanuly or Erislandy Lara; into a showdown with countryman Hamzah Sheeraz; back to a fight with Conor Benn that was called off two years ago when Benn tested positive for a banned substance; even into a fight hosting Canelo in the U.K. in 2025.
Eubank’s (33-3, 24 KOs) past fight was in September 2023, when he won a rematch with Liam Smith via 10th-round technical knockout. Saturday’s with Szeremeta will end a 13-month layoff for the 35-year-old from Brighton. In addition to his loss to Smith, Eubank’s other defeats came against Billy Joe Saunders, via split decision in 2014, and George Groves, via unanimous decision in 2018.
Szeremeta (25-2-2, 8 KOs), a 34-year-old from Bialystok, Poland, had two fights against upper-tier middleweights and was outclassed both times. He was floored repeatedly by Gennady Golovkin before being stopped after seven rounds in December 2020, and then sent packing following six rounds with Jaime Munguia in July 2021. Since then, he has gone 4-0-2 against nondescript opposition.
Ben Whittaker-Liam Cameron: Whittaker, who won silver in the 2020 Olympics, is a light heavyweight prospect with a record of 8-0 (5 KOs). He has been taken the distance in his past two outings, including in June when defeating the then-12-0 Eworitse Ezra Arenyeka.
This time, the 27-year-old from West Bromwich shares the ring with Cameron, a 33-year-old from Sheffield. Cameron is 23-6 (10 KOs) and is coming off a split decision loss to Lyndon Arthur in June.
More Fights to Watch
Friday, October 11: Jan Paul Rivera-Pizarro-Andy Beltran (DAZN)
The broadcast begins at 7 p.m. Eastern Time (12 a.m. BST).
This is the fourth straight fight for Rivera-Pizarro against a fellow unbeaten prospect.
The 23-year-old featherweight from Salinas, Puerto Rico, won decisions over the 2-0 Leandro Novas Sanchez in December and the 9-0 David Perez in April. Then, in July, he stopped the 8-0 Justin Goodson in seven rounds. Rivera-Pizarro is 10-0 (6 KOs).
Friday’s main event will be just up the road from Rivera-Pizarro’s hometown, at the Coliseo Roger L Mendoza in Caguas.
He’ll meet Beltran, a 23-year-old from Las Vegas who is 8-0 (5 KOs). Beltran last fought in March, scoring a first-round knockout of the 2-1 Isiah Rodriguez. That was one of just two fighters Beltran has faced with more wins than losses. The other was also 2-1.
Saturday, October 12: Hector Camacho Jr.-Andrew Hernandez (CombatSportsNow)
The broadcast begins at 10 a.m. Eastern Time (3 p.m. BST).
This isn’t a TV picks article from 15 years ago. Camacho, 46 years old, is headlining a morning show at the La Plata County Fairgrounds in Durango, Colorado.
Camacho retired with a record of 59-7-1 (33 KOs). He has fought in various exhibitions since. CombatSportsNow is advertising this as a professional boxing match, but BoxRec doesn’t have it listed.
Indeed, BoxRec has a completely different opponent for Hernandez. It says that the 38-year-old from Phoenix will have a rematch with Jeremy Ramos. Their first fight was also Hernandez’s past appearance, taking place in July 2021, when Hernandez won a majority decision to move to 21-8-2 (9 KOs). Prior to that, Hernandez suffered a number of defeats against recognizable names – including Ali Akhmedov, Caleb Plant, Patrick Teixeira and Jesse Hart.
Saturday, October 12: Acelino Freitas-Jorge “El Chino” Miranda (TrillerTV.com)
The broadcast begins at 5 p.m. Eastern Time (10 p.m. BST).
We’re getting Camacho and Freitas on the same day on different shows. Because it’s not like there’s an undisputed light heavyweight championship fight or any other good alternatives to watch, right?
Freitas, a former 130-pound and 135-pound titleholder, has also been on a run of exhibitions. He is 49 and fought sporadically as a professional after his 2007 loss to Juan Diaz, returning once apiece in 2012, 2015 and 2017. Freitas was 41-2 (34 KOs) – his only other defeat coming against Diego Corrales in 2004.
Freitas is from Salvador, Brazil. This fight will take place in Sao Paolo at the Ginasio da Portuguesa.
Miranda is a 41-year-old from Cordoba, Argentina. He is 59-22-1 (22 KOs) and remains an active fighter. Many of those defeats came against names that are familiar to those of us who’ve followed the sport too closely and for too long.
By David Greisman