"Knocked him out": the absolute world champion from Russia set a condition for Usyk to rematch

Absolute world light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) expressed his readiness to fight Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs). The Russian, who is shamefully hiding under the Canadian flag, noted that he is not going to rise to the royal division to do so.

Beterbiev said this in a comment to Seconds Out. The 39-year-old native of Khasavyurt, who calls the leader of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov his brother, added that he is ready to move up to heavyweight, but Usyk also needs to go down to that division again. In addition, the Russian recalled how he defeated the Ukrainian in the amateur division.

"Of course, I'm interested in such a heavyweight fight. Usyk has done a great job in boxing. I would even say that he did the best job in boxing. I was hitting Usyk, his body. I knocked him down. But I did it only once. So this doesn't mean that Usyk is weak in the body," he said. Beterbiev.

It should be noted that the boxers have met several times at the amateur level. In 2007, at a tournament in Kaliningrad, the Russian won 12:10, and the Ukrainian took revenge in the quarterfinals of the 2011 World Cup and the 2012 Olympics with the same score of 17:13.

Because of these defeats, Beterbiev harbored a grudge against Usyk and accused him of cowardice. And after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he called Oleksandr sick because of his stance against the aggressors.

Earlier, the Russian complained that many fans and experts accused him of being jealous of the Ukrainian super champion.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, Artur Beterbiev beat Dmytro Bivol in a scandalous fight and unified all the light heavyweight belts. During the fight, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was humiliated in Saudi Arabia.

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