BY Norn Frauenheim –
Some might call it perfection. But Artur Beterbiev won’t. His record, like his personal style, is simply reliable. No losses. No decisions. Eighteen fights, eighteen knockouts and no bravado.
Let Jake Paul and Ryan Garcia brag about their YouTube followers. Leave the laughs and lyrics to Tyson Fury. Let Terence Crawford argue about his right to pound-for-pound supremacy.
Beterbiev just fights, a quiet craftsman with a big punch and no pretensions. It’s hard to say whether he’s better at what he does than anybody else in a business dominated by a bully pulpit amplified by social media.
Perhaps, eighteen pro fights over nearly a decade aren’t enough to deliver a true judgement on just how good he is. That might be Beterbiev’s only imperfection. A business in peril might be better off if it had seen more of him.
Yet, he’s always worth watching, a light-heavyweight who has turned craft into art in a fashion that figures to continue Saturday at London’s Wembley Arena (ESPN+, 3:30 pm ET/12:30 PT) against Anthony Yarde (23-2, 22 KOs).
Beterbiev’s understated – and underestimated – impact on boxing might be impossible to ignore in a new year.
Betting odds suggest his unblemished record will continue. He’s a 7-to-1 favorite over Yarde, whose only advantage might be a hometown crowd. He was born in London.
Then, what?
A truer test of Beterbiev’s pound-for-pound credentials might be there in a light-heavyweight showdown against Dmitry Bivol, 2022’s consensus Fighter of the Year after his upset of Canelo Alvarez and subsequent one-sided decision over Gilberto Ramirez.
It’s hard to say, mostly because it’s not certain what Canelo does next. The undisputed super-middleweight champion is expected to come off wrist surgery in May, perhaps in a tune-up against John Ryder.
Then, there’s talk – and only talk – about a rematch with Bivol. But at what weight? Light-heavyweight or super-middle? 175 pounds or 168?
By then, the winner of David Benavidez-versus Caleb Plant on March 25 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand will have to watch, wait and wonder. Benavidez and Plant are facing each other in a so-called mandatory. The winner is supposed to move on to a shot at the World Boxing Council belt held by Canelo.
But Canelo’s documented drawing power comes with some perks. Let’s say boxing’s biggest – perhaps only – pay-per-view star gets a chance to fight the rematch at 168 instead of 175, the weight class in his May loss to Bivol.
Bivol-Canelo 2 at either weight is a bigger fight than a bout against the emerging Benavidez or rematch with Plant. Nothing is more mandatory than money in prizefighting. The bigger money would be in Bivol-Canelo.
But the proud Bivol, who is about as unassuming as Beterbiev, has also expressed an interest in a career-defining date with Beterbiev, who holds three of the significant belts. Bivol has the fourth.
For now, of course, Beterbiev isn’t saying much about Bivol. Sure, he’s interested, he said a couple of weeks ago. At a news conference in London Thursday, however, he talked about the immediate task at hand.
“I’m not dreaming about anyone to fight,’’ he told Gareth Davies in a Top Rank-produced video.
A consummate craftsman doesn’t have time for dreams. He might not be perfect if he did.