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 because of 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-five 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 tuneup 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.
