Boxer Beterbiev defeated Ukrainian Gvozdyk in a fight for two championship titles

Russian Artur Beterbiev defeated Ukrainian boxer Alexander Gvozdyk in the light heavyweight title fight, unifying two championship titles. He defended the International Boxing Federation (IBF) belt and took the World Boxing Council (WBC) title in the weight category up to 79.38 kg from a previously undefeated opponent.

The 12-round fight, which took place on Friday in Philadelphia (USA), ended with the Russian winning by technical knockout in the tenth round.

In the first round, Gvozdyk was on the floor of the ring, but after watching a slow-motion replay, the knockdown was annulled. In the tenth round, the Russian knocked his opponent down three more times, after which the fight was stopped.

Beterbiev simply didn’t leave Gvozdik a chance pic.twitter.com/gni47boPpF

— Boxing/MMA (@boxing_mma_se) October 19, 2019

According to media reports, at the time the fight was stopped, Gvozdyk was in the lead in the judges' notes; two out of three referees preferred him. The score was 87-84, 86-85, 83-87 in favor of the Ukrainian.

34-year-old Beterbiev won his 15th victory in 15 fights in the professional ring, winning all fights by knockout. He defended his IBF world title for the third time, won in November 2017.

He became the fourth Russian boxer to unify two or more prestigious world championship belts. Previously, this was achieved by Konstantin Tszyu, Denis Lebedev and Sergei Kovalev.

The 32-year-old Gvozdyk suffered his first defeat in 17 victories (14KOs) and failed to defend the WBC world title, which he won in December 2018, for the second time.

At the moment, three Russians hold championship titles, all in the light heavyweight division. In addition to Beterbiev, Kovalev (WBO up to 79.38 kg) and Dmitry Bivol (WBA up to 79.38 kg) have belts.