Bloodied but Undaunted, Beterbiev KOs Browne

Two-time Olympian Artur Beterbiev was in his adopted city of Montreal tonight risking his WBC and IBF world light heavyweight title belts against Marcus Browne. It was the second outing of the year for Beterbiev who missed all of 2010 after suffering a rib injury and contracting Covid.

The 36-year-old Russian lion is recognized as the top dog in his weight class. Tonight, he was without ace cutman Russ Amber who was sidelined with the coronavirus. Amber would have been a busy beaver. During the fourth round, an accidental clash of heads left Beterbiev with a bad gash on his forehead. Browne was bloodied too, cut over his right eye, and both fighters were examined by ring doctors at the conclusion of the round.

Beterbiev, his forehead a mask of crimson, fought through the blood and methodically battered Browne into submission. He put him down in the seventh with a left-right combination and did it again in the ninth. On both occasions Browne took a knee and on his second trip he made no attempt to rise. Which isn’t to suggest that he lacked courage. With his superior strength and constant pressure, the fearsome Russian would be a handful for anyone at or near his weight class.

Beterbiev, 36, retained his 100 percent knockout rate with his 17^th stoppage. The official time was 0.46 of round nine. Marcus Browne, who formerly held an interim 175-pound title and had Derrick James in his corner, slumped to 24-2.

Undercard

To say that the undercard was substandard would be a great understatement.

Thirty-five-year-old southpaw Marie Eve Dicaire re-captured the IBF 154-pound title that she had lost to Claressa Shields and accomplished something that she had never done before, namely winning inside the distance. Her seventh-round stoppage of Monterrey, Mexico’s Cynthia Lozano said less about Dicaire (18-1, 1 KO) and more about Lozano whose 9-0 record, forged entirely in Mexico, camouflaged her unskillfulness. She was on her feet when the referee halted the one-sided affair.

Toronto super middleweight Steve Rolls, 37, advanced to 21-1 (12) with a ninth-round stoppage of Philadelphia’s Christopher Brooker (16-9). It was the second fight back for Rolls after being stopped in four rounds by Gennadiy Golovkin at Madison Square Garden in June of 2019.

Rolls was firmly ahead when he knocked the tiring Brooker to his knees with a three-punch combination midway through the ninth frame. Brooker made it to his feet but the referee stopped the contest before another punch was thrown.

There’s talk of Steve Rolls taking on knockout artist Edgar Berlanga in the spring. Brooker was once a promising prospect but has lost eight of his last 13 and been stopped five times.

In a low-level club fight between two cruiserweights appearing in their first 10-rounder, 41-year-old Yan Pellerin, a former (and perhaps current?)  MMA fighter who toils for promoter Yvon Michel as a gym supervisor and fitness instructor, pitched a 10-round shutout over Francisco Rivas, Mexico’s Rivas (15-3), who started his pro career at 154, stayed the course which is the kindest thing one can say about his showing. Pellerin is 13-1 (5) and lives to fight another day.

Photo credit: Bernard Brault / GYM

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