Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc has been on a bit of a signing spree in the last week to strengthen its roster for its ESPN contract. Earlier it was a pair of intriguing prospects and now it is a pair of current and former world titleholders headlined by IBF light heavyweight titlist Artur Beterbiev.
Earlier this week Top Rank completed a nice set of under the radar signings of Filipino recent title challenger Genesis Servania and Dominican prospect Carlos Adames. Both of those men have world title potential and both serve to flesh out their roster quite well. Now Bob Arum and company have outdone even those with a much more prominent duo.
Jose Pedraza (22-1, 12 KOs) has been inactive since his one sided loss to the then ascendant Gervonta Davis in January of 2017, but before that he was an entertaining junior lightweight titleholder from Puerto Rico with two successful defense. Given both Top Rank’s lucrative history of promoting Puerto Ricans and the boxing scene’s current dearth of top fighters from the island and its proud boxing history, this signing makes a lot of sense of both parties. Pedraza is listed by boxrec as returning to the sport on Top Rank’s March 17th card. I don’t know if that will actually happen though. Whether his return is there or later in the spring, his first fight back will certainly be against low level competition.
The crown jewel in Top Rank’s recent signing spree is IBF light heavyweight titleholder Artur Beterbiev (12-0, 12 KOs). The Russian power puncher has been one of the most exciting up and coming fighters in the sport for some time, but he has largely lost the career momentum that he had a couple years ago thanks to inactivity due to a contract dispute with Montreal based promoter Yvon Mitchell. Arum wants his top fighters in the ring three times a year so hopefully Beterbiev will be much more active going forward. This move has been some time coming too. Top Rank even went ahead and paid up to win the purse bid for Beterbiev’s title win over Enrico Koelling in November despite not promoting either fighter at the time. Early talk is that Beterbiev may be headed for the April 19th co-main event slot of Terence Crawford’s welterweight title shot versus Jeff Horn.
