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Mike Coppinger, ESPN Boxing Insider
Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol will meet in a Feb. 22 rematch for the undisputed light heavyweight championship, Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, announced Monday.
Beterbiev scored a controversial majority-decision victory over Bivol in October in Riyadh to annex all four 175-pound titles. And it was a fight that begged for a return bout between the exceptional skill level on display and the competitiveness of the bout.
The fight between two of ESPN’s pound-for-pound best boxers (Beterbiev is No. 4, Bivol is No. 6) will be supported by the deepest pay-per-view undercard in recent memory.
Daniel Dubois, who upset Anthony Joshua in September via fifth-round KO, will make the first defense of his IBF heavyweight title vs. former champion Joseph Parker in the co-feature.
New Zealand’s Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) is coming off back-to-back decision wins over Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang to revitalize his career. England’s Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) is ESPN’s No. 3 heavyweight while Parker is No. 4.
Shakur Stevenson will defend his WBC lightweight title vs. undefeated prospect Floyd Schofield in another intriguing undercard fight, one that features two Americans. Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) is ESPN’s No. 9 pound-for-pound boxer. He was set to fight Joe Cordina in October in Riyadh before he underwent hand surgery.
Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) is coming off a decision win over Rene Tellez Giron last month, a fight in which Schofield was knocked down.
Vergil Ortiz is set to meet Israil Madrimov in a battle of top-5 junior middleweights (Madrimov is ESPN’s No. 2 boxer at 154 pounds while Ortiz is No. 5.) Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs) was in talks to meet welterweight champion Jaron Ennis at 154 pounds, but Ennis turned down the fight.
Uzbekistan’s Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) must first defeat Serhii Bohachuk on the Dec. 21 Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury undercard, and do so without injury.
In a fourth title fight, Carlos Adames will defend his WBC middleweight title vs. Hamzah Sheeraz. The Dominican Republic’s Adames (24-1, 18 KOs) is ESPN’s No. 2 boxer at 160 pounds while England’s Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs) is No. 6.
The card is rounded out by a pair of coin-flip fights that feature top-10 boxers in the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions.
China’s Zhilei Zhang, ESPN’s No. 6 heavyweight, meets Germany’s Agit Kabayel (No. 8) in a fight for the WBC interim title. Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) is coming off a brutal fifth-round KO win over Wilder in June. Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs) scored a seventh-round KO of Frank Sanchez in December.
The opening bout of the seven-fight PPV card features a pair of Englishmen, Joshua Buatsi and Callum Smith, in a matchup that should spring the winner to a title shot. Smith (30-2, 22 KOs) rebounded with a tune-up victory over the weekend but was stopped by Beterbiev in January. Buatsi (19-0, 13 KOs) scored a split-decision victory over Willy Hutchinson in September.