(New York) Artur Beterbiev lived up to the old saying: never two without three.
Posted at 11:37 p.m.
Beterbiev defeated Joe Smith Jr. by knockout. in the second round and claimed a third light heavyweight belt at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday.
Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs), champion of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Council (WBC) belts, added the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title to his height .
Marc Ramsay’s protege dominated the fight from start to finish and kept his perfect record of as many knockouts. in as many battles.
Only one belt escapes the Montrealer of Russian origin. It is that of the World Boxing Association (WBA) currently owned by Dmitrii Bivol. The latter must however cross swords for a third time with Gennadiy Golovkin later this year before potentially unifying all the titles.
Long Island native Smith (28-4, 22 KOs) was knocked down in the first round and things went from bad to worse for Smith. He finally abdicated in the second round.
On the undercard, the double gold medalist for Cuba, Robeisy Ramirez (10-1, 6 K. -O.) gave a first loss to Puerto Rican Abraham Nova (21-1, 15 K. -O.) by through a K. -O. in the fifth round.