(June 4) - As the world mourns the loss of Muhammad Ali, Saturday night’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on ESPN and ESPN Deportes telecast began with a “Ceremonial 10-Count” in memory of “The Greatest” and continued to pay tribute to him throughout the telecast that was headlined by a light heavyweight bout between hard-hitting Russian Olympian Artur Beterbiev against Argentina’s Ezequiel Maderna.
The 31-year-old Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs), who fights out of Montreal, returned to the ring after an almost year-long layoff following shoulder surgery. Now seven months removed from the procedure, Beterbiev looked sharp from the opening bell as he threw straight right hands and body shots effectively to start the fight.
Maderna, who was also coming off of a long layoff, was hoping to make a statement in his first fight on North American soil as he moved up in weight for this bout. Beterbiev utilized his power and precision to control the entire fight, but kicked it into high gear in the third round, sending the 29-year-old Maderna to the canvas with two right hands. He stood up, but soon after was sent to the canvas again. This time, spitting out his mouth piece to delay the bout causing Referee Marlon B. Wright to deduct a point.
At the start of round four, Maderna was dropped with a punishing right hand. He rose to his feat only find himself canvas agan, looking at his corner, they threw in the towel and the fight was stopped at 54 seconds of round four.
''I am really satisfied by my performance,” said Beterbiev. “I want to thank my team for their patience during my inactivity.”
''My guy did really well after an absence of a year,” said Beterbiev’s trainer Marc Ramsay. “He is very special. In a short or medium period of time, we want to fight in a world championship.”
#BeterbievMaderna #ArturBeterbiev #EzequielMaderna
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