Light-heavyweight star Artur Beterbiev has ruled out facing one world champion at any stage in the near future.
The 40-year-old from Russia has enjoyed an exceptional professional career since his debut back in 2013, proving to be a dominant force at 175lbs over the years.
He reigned as the unified WBC and IBF light-heavyweight champion between 2019 and 2024, defeating the likes of Callum Smith, Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Anthony Yarde during his reign.
Beterbiev then clashed with Dmitry Bivol in their first encounter last October, outpointing his countryman to become the undisputed light-heavyweight champion, the first fighter to achieve this feat within the ‘four belt’ era.
Bivol avenged this defeat in their rematch in February of this year, in what proved to be yet another ‘Fight of the Year’ contender. It is now expected that a trilogy showdown between the pair will take place during the early stages of 2026, although an official announcement is yet to be made.
At one stage Beterbiev had been keen on a professional fight against former amateur rival Oleksandr Usyk, saying he would be interested if the Ukrainian dropped back down to cruiserweight.
“From a pure sporting perspective I would be interested in this fight, of course, because we boxed in the Olympics and the World Championships as amateurs.
It would be interesting to try as professionals, not for money, although money would be nice, but my interest in this fight would be purely sporting, much more than monetary. Much more.”
And it looked like Usyk would in fact move down a division, telling Sky Sports he would try to become champion at 200lbs again after beating Tyson Fury twice.
“I try cruiserweight again. I try [to be undisputed cruiserweight again].”
However, in an interview with Fight Hub TV, Beterbiev has now ruled out facing his former foe, claiming the two-weight undisputed champion is ‘too good’ and ‘too strong’ for him, even if he did move down from heavyweight.
“No, he’s too strong for me you know. He’s like heavyweight you know it’s too strong even if he came back down. He’s too strong [even at cruiserweight], too good.”
Usyk currently reigns as the unified heavyweight champion and is just weeks away from facing IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois. Their highly anticipated rematch, which takes place at Wembley Stadium on July 19, will be contested for the undisputed heavyweight championship.
Victory for Usyk would see the 38-year-old make boxing history by becoming the very first two-time undisputed heavyweight champion of the ‘four belt era’, having already achieved this feat when he defeated Tyson Fury in May of 2024.