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Unified Light Heavyweight World Champion Artur Beterbiev
Defends Against Adam Deines On Jan. 30
The pandemic and an injury kept Artur Beterbiev out of the
ring in 2020, but boxing’s most devastating knockout artist
has a blank canvas as he prepares to kick off Top Rank on
ESPN’s 2021 championship schedule in grand fashion.
Beterbiev, the unified WBC and IBF light heavyweight world
champion, will defend his titles Saturday, Jan. 30 against
Adam Deines at VTB Arena in Moscow, Russia. A two-time
Olympian from Russia’s Chechnya region, Beterbiev has never
fought in his home nation as a professional.
Promoted by Top Rank, in association with Patriot
Promotions, Beterbiev-Deines will stream live and
exclusively on ESPN+ at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT, with undercard
bouts to stream on ESPN+ at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.
“Artur Beterbiev is the world’s premier light heavyweight,
and we eagerly await his ring return,” said Top Rank
chairman Bob Arum. “We have unification plans for Artur next
year, but he must first get past Adam Deines, a worthy,
upset-minded challenger.”
Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs), boxing’s only world champion with
a 100 percent knockout ratio, authored the signature win of
his career in October 2019, when he knocked out Oleksandr
Gvozdyk in the 10th round of a title unification fight in
Philadelphia. The COVID-19 pandemic scuttled plans for a
March 28 title defense against China’s Meng Fanlong, and the
original Oct. 23 date for the Deines fight was postponed
after Beterbiev suffered a rib injury in training. Deines
(19-1-1, 10 KOs), ranked No. 5 by the IBF, was born in
Russia and has made his professional home in Germany. The
29-year-old southpaw has won a pair of bouts via stoppage
since the lone loss of his career, a June 2019 unanimous
decision to Fanlong in Macau, China.
“I'm excited to have the chance to fight in my home country
of Russia,” Beterbiev said. "This fight against Adam Deines
means a lot to me, and you can be sure that I am preparing
accordingly to honor this opportunity.”
Deines said, “I’ve been waiting to fight Beterbiev for a
long time. I can’t wait to put forth the fight of my life to
become unified world champion. Moscow, I’m coming.”
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