For the second time this year, boxing fans will get to see two undefeated champions battling in what on paper is as close to a 50-50 fight as possible.
Artur Beterbiev will put his WBC, WBO, and IBF light heavyweight titles on the line when he faces WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol this Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and on ESPN+. Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) is the only boxing champion who has knocked out every opponent and appears to be the stronger fighter, but Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) has exceptional boxing skills that he demonstrated in a unanimous decision against Mexican great Canelo Alvarez in May 2022. Like Fury vs. Usyk earlier this year, a fight we will see again in December, you can make a strong case for both fighters.
Also this Saturday, Newark native Michael Anderson (24-3-1, 18 knockouts) looks to extend his winning streak to eight fights when he battles Queens, New York’s Daniel Gonzalez (21-4-1, 7 KOs) at Prudential Center in Newark. The co-main event will also feature a New Yorker versus a New Jerseyan when Newark’s Emmanuel Rodriguez (15-2, 8 KOs) steps into the ring against Brooklyn’s Khalid Twaiti (13-0, 5 KOs).
If everything played out the same way as in UFC 307’s main event and the contest was only three rounds, perhaps Khalil Rountree Jr. would have become the new champion, but UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira came on strong in the third round and finished his opponent in the fourth to retain his title at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
Brazilian Robson Conceição (19-2-1, 9 KOs) became the new WBC junior lightweight champion over the summer in Newark when he was given a win in a fight in which he connected on fewer than 11% (10.8%) of his total punches. O’Shaquie Foster (23-3, 12 KOs), who clearly won the fight in the eyes of almost everyone else, will have a chance at redemption when he has a chance to regain his title on Saturday, Nov. 2, in Verona, N.Y. “That bad decision woke something up in me, and now all I can think about is the ‘get back,’” Foster said of the upcoming fight. “I want to thank everybody who pushed for the right thing to be done. Now the focus is to become a two-time champion.”
The UFC will return to Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Nov. 16., for UFC 309 with Jon Jones (27-1-0, 1 NC) making the first defense of his UFC heavyweight title, against former two-time champion Stipe Miocic (20-4-0). Neither Jones nor Miocic has been in the octagon in quite some time—Jones last competed in March of 2023, while Miocic has not faced competition since March 2021.
