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Everything’s officially squared away for unified IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev’s March 20th title defense against Adam Denies. The undercard kicks off at 1:00 PM Eastern on ESPN+, while the ESPN broadcast begins two hours later.
MARCH 20 PROGRAMMING UPDATE
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) March 12, 2021
- ESPN broadcast opens at 3pm ET / 12pm PT with Welterweight contender Alexander Besputin (13-0, 9 KO) returning in the co-main event against Maximilian’s Ricardo Veron
- ESPN+ undercard stream begins at 1pm ET / 10am PT#BeterbievDeines pic.twitter.com/5lnmKtjQd7
The co-feature sees former WBA “world” welterweight champ Alexander Besputin (13-0, 9 KO) make his first appearance since defeating Radzhab Butaev in November 2019 and subsequently failing a drug test. He takes on Maximiliano Ricardo Veron (12-3-1, 4 KO), who judging by his current 1-3-1 skid is not among Argentina’s seemingly endless supply of dangerous unknowns.
Over on the two-fight televised undercard, former European Games silver medalist Khariton Agrba (4-0, 1 KO) fights Venezuelan victim-to-the-stars Jesus Cuadro (19-7, 15 KO) for a WBA super lightweight trinket and WBC #4 super middleweight Azizbek Abdugofurov (13-0, 5 KO) meets former world amateur medalist Pavel Silyagin (6-0, 4 KO).
The afternoon timing will produce some conflict with Lawrence Okolie vs. Krzysztof Glowacki on DAZN, but this main event should be over before the other one starts.