There was a full night of boxing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday with the titles for three weight classes on the line. Up for grabs were the World Boxing Council (WBC) Women’s Featherweight title, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and Ring Magazine Cruiserweight title, and the undisputed light heavyweight title. At the end of the day, two Australians maintained their titles (Skye Nicolson of Meadowbrook, and Jai Opetaia of Sydney), while Russian-born Canadian Artur Beterbiev became the undisputed light heavyweight champion in the World Boxing Association (WBA), the WBC, IBF, World Boxing Organization (WBO), and Ring Magazine. Prior to the fight, Beterbiev was the WBC, IBF WBO champion. Now he is the WBA and Ring Magazine champion too.
Skye Nicolson
On Saturday, Nicolson retained her WBC Women’s Featherweight title with a victory via unanimous decision over Raven Chapman of Great Britain. Nicolson has now improved to a professional boxing record of 12 wins and zero losses. Of her 12 wins, only one has come via knockout. This bout between Nicolson and Chapman was noteworthy because it was the first time ever there was a women’s world boxing title taking place in Saudi Arabia. The featherweight weight class is for boxers at 126 pounds. Amanda Serrano of Puerto Rico is the WBA, WBO, and Ring Magazine Champion. Meanwhile, Nina Meinke of Germany is the IBF Champion.
Jai Opetaia
On Saturday, Opetaia retained his IBF and Ring Magazine titles in the cruiserweight division (200 pounds), with a technical knockout win over Jack Massey of Great Britain in the sixth round. Opetaia now improves to 26-0 all-time. The other three boxers that have a cruiserweight title are Gilberto Ramirez of Mexico (WBA), Noel Mikaelian of Germany (WBC), and Chris Billam-Smith of Great Britain (WBO).
Artur Beterbiev
Beterbiev beat Dmitry Bivol of Russia by majority decision. Beterbiev is now 21-0 all-time with 20 wins via knockout. It will be interesting to see how much Beterbiev has left in the tank as he is 39 years of age.
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