Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez has been backed by Tony Bellew to knock out Artur Beterbiev because he thinks the Russian 'can be hurt'.
Big-hitting Beterbiev, 36, survived a nasty cut to put away Marcus Browne, setting himself up perfectly for a hotly-anticipated fight with Canelo Alvarez.
Speaking ahead of last weekend's title fight with American Browne, promoter Bob Arum revealed he wants to set up a boxing match between Alvarez and Beterbiev which he billed as 'one of the biggest fights in boxing'.
But Bellew believes the Mexican would deal with him in much the same way he ruthlessly dispatched of his fellow countryman Sergey Kovalev.
“I think Canelo would stop Beterbiev, I’ve seen the warning signs there already, I’ve seen the shots that he can be hurt with," Bellew told DAZN.
“If it does [the power being carried up] with Kovalev then I think it will with Beterbiev but as I said its styles make fights.”
However, Bellew's P.O.V. is almost totally at odds with former two-weight world champion Carl Frampton, who feels Beterbiev may be a step too far even for someone like Canelo.
He previously said: "Well, Beterbiev is a different story, isn't it? Obviously Kovalev was, you know, on his way out, and it was a carefully picked opponent.
"But saying that, he's still a light heavyweight, dangerous puncher, and Kovalev's a hard man.
"Beterbiev is a serious fight and it would be one that I would be really excited about if it gets made.
"Would it surprise me if Canelo won? No, but would it surprise me if he lost? No, it's one of them real hard fights to call."
With that being said, Frampton believes Beterbiev could end up being forced to cut weight by at least 'a couple of pounds', so they can fight on terms which are 'more favourable for Canelo'.
He later continued: "I think what would happen if that fight does get made is it won't be at light heavyweight, it'll probably be a couple of pounds below it.
"Beterbiev fought as a heavyweight in the amateurs, I think he would really struggle to make the weight, but it would be something like that involved just to kind of make it a little bit more favourable for Canelo.
"But that's the sport, it's probably not fair, but that's just the way this sport is today, they look after the number one and Canelo is easily the number one fighter on the planet."
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