.@abeterbiev puts Maderna on the canvas twice in the third round, beginning to overwhelm his foe. #PBConESPN pic.twitter.com/83h66KBMiH
— PBC (@premierboxing) June 5, 2016
In Ezequiel Maderna, Beterbiev may have had the perfect foil Saturday night on the Premier Boxing Champion show at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec. Maderna has spent most of his career as a super middleweight. He never won outside of his native Argentina. Beterbiev, who was coming off a long layoff due to a shoulder injury, needed to prove something.
He did.
After finding his attacking distance the first two rounds, Beterbiev struck in the last minute of the third round, starting with a straight right to the face, followed by a short right on top of Maderna’s head for the first knockdown. Another few rights spelled another knockdown, and a point for twice spitting out his mouthpiece.
A pair of knockdown in the fourth spelled the end for Maderna, who quit at :56 of the fourth round, when referee Marlon B. Wright saw enough and waved it over.
Beterbiev (10-0, 10 KOs) has now won nine of his 10 fights within the first five rounds. Maderna (23-3, 15 KOs) didn’t exactly help himself. A career super middleweight, Maderna came in overweight for the step up in weight. He did little during the course of the fight, other than to take Beterbiev’s shots.
By the fourth round, he seemed to lose interest after being knocked down for the fourth time. The third knockdown could come under some dispute, because a replay showed Beterbiev barely hit him. But once Maderna tasted the canvas a fourth time, he looked over to his corner, motioning with his left hand for someone to bail him out and throw the towel in.
Whether Beterbiev is ready for someone as seasoned as Adonis Stevenson is under some question. But he is a hard puncher. He is TV-friendly, but he’s going to have be tested more than someone like Maderna, who was little known.
Beterbiev has over 300 amateur fights. He is someone worth seeing again. Though against someone more willing to fight back.
Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.