Artur Beterbiev is favored to defeat fellow 175-pound titleholder Joe Smith Jr. on Saturday for a reason.
The two-time Olympian for his native Russia has a deep amateur background – a reported 300 fights – and he has put together a perfect professional career: 17 fights, 17 knockouts over nine years. He’s as feared as anyone in boxing.
Smith (28-3, 22 KOs) is gritty and strong but he can’t match that kind of record.
“What can I say about Artur Beterbiev,” promoter Bob Arum said at the final news conference before the fight at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York (ESPN). “… He really epitomizes the ferocity that light heavyweights are known for.
“He’s a tremendous, tremendous puncher, he has a big, big heart. He refuses to lose.”
If there is a question surrounding Beterbiev, it might be his age. He turned 37 in January.
He elected to remain an amateur through the 2012 Olympics in London, where he lost in the second round to current heavyweight titleholder Oleksandr Usyk 17-13. He made his pro debut in June 2013 in his adopted home city of Montreal, after he had turned 28.
Thirty-seven isn’t ancient, particularly in an era when boxers fight infrequently. However, that number catches one’s attention.
“Why did you remind me?” Beterbiev joked in English when asked about it. “I always ask my conditioning coach, my boxing coach, ‘How do you think I do? Do I do less work [during training] than two years ago?’
“They say, ‘No, you do better than two years ago.’ Maybe they lie to me. I don’t know.”
At that moment conditioning coach Andre Kulesza, sitting in the audience at the news conference, yelled that his client is as fit as ever. And Smith, sitting not far from Beterbiev on the dais, agreed with him.
“I believe this guy is in his prime right now,” Smith said. “I don’t think age has anything to do with it. I know he’s 100% ready to go.”
Beterbiev has been moved quickly in his pro career, however.
He stopped former titleholder Tavoris Cloud in two rounds in his sixth fight, former champ Gabriel Campillo in four rounds in his eighth fight and Enrico Koelling in the final round of his 12th fight to win the vacant IBF title in November 2017.
He became a unified champion in a career-defining 10th-round stoppage of then-unbeaten WBC beltholder Oleksandr Gvozdyk in October 2019.
The odds (about 6½-1) say Smith won’t give Beterbiev as hard a time as Gvozdyk did but, with one more belt on the line, it might be a more crucial to his career. The winner would be in position to face WBA titleholder Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed championship and a place along the great 175-pounders of the past.
Beterbiev isn’t a man of many words but he was able to convey the gravity of the event.
“It’s just important,” he said. “I can say like one word, it’s very important. I do training every day for that.”
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