OLEKSANDR GVOZDYK and Artur Beterbiev have hit the scales for their richly anticipated light-heavyweight unification. Gvozdyk is the WBC champion, Beterbiev holds the IBF title but both are hard-hitting, skilled fighters.
The fighters made weight Thursday. Beterbiev weighed 174.5lbs. Gvozdyk scaled 174.3lbs.
Both have beaten quality opposition to reach this point but Gvozdyk has the stand out win over Adonis Stevenson. Beterbiev has however had a stop-start career so far. “It was a difficult time, but I don’t want to talk about the past,” he said. “I think the future is more happy. It’s hard when you have court [with promotional differences] and you have to train and be active. It’s hard, but I did that. Now, I have 100 percent time to focus on my fight and my career.”
His trainer Marc Ramsay added, “We asked our management if we could have [unification] fights right away. This is what Artur wants, what I want as a trainer, and everybody wanted to go in this direction. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes, but I know it wasn’t very difficult looking back with this fight on the table. We said ‘yes’ right away, first day [it was offered].”
Their contest takes place on Saturday (October 18) at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia. Click HERE for the Boxing News preview.
