Artur Beterbiev: “From Russia With Love” – The Boxing World is Now Taking Notice of Hot Prospect Part I

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By Simon “Says” Traversy

In this first part of a series of articles on Slavic fighters, I will thoroughly investigate the current success of fighters hailing from the former Soviet Union in order to pin-point exactly what makes them so good and so feared. All the important questions such as the who, the what, the where, the when, the how and especially the why, will be thoroughly investigated and examined. But first, let’s start by analyzing Artur Beterbiev’s latest victory against Alexander Johnson last Friday, in Chicago.

Introduction

So I’ve successfully completed 4 weeks of overtime. Yesterday was a tough one though; Thursday I finished late and Friday I had to get up early to work two shifts. I finished at the same time yesterday as I had the day before which was 11pm. I was dead tired but satisfied that the week was almost over. I had thus convinced myself that I would just go home, do four sets of TABATA-style plyometric push-ups, shower, eat, watch a quick show, and go to bed to recharge my batteries which were in the lowest low. And then, I made the mistake of checking Facebook.

Social Media Slave

Someone posted that Artur Beterbiev had won yet again before the limit, by TKO in round seven. No surprise there. I think it’s safe to say that until Beterbiev fights for a world title, it will most likely be that kind of scenario. Regardless of my obvious lack of surprise, the only predictable fights which never fail to entertain me are those involving a puncher. Moreover since Beterbiev also happens to train just 15 minutes away from where I live, I’m quite prejudiced towards his current rise to stardom. Finally I simply love Eurasian fighters, so whenever I have the opportunity to watch a boxer-puncher like Beterbiev decimate the light heavyweight division, it’s hard for me to resist.
I was thus compelled to go on YouTube and watch his fight ASAP. In regards to my training, I switched to Plan B and hopped on the spinning bike I had purchased a month ago for those types of unplanned ‘’ emergencies’’ (best investment ever, that and an uncastrated male pitbull for roadwork to keep the sidewalk clear of pedestrians). I must confess that I didn’t know much about Beterbiev’s opponent, but I knew it wouldn’t make much of a difference anyways.

I quickly glanced at Johnson’s record which was decent (16-2, 7 KO’s, now 3 losses) but nothing worthy of the elite, and especially nothing worth losing sleep over as far as Beterbiev and his handlers were concerned. It took me (and probably most of you as well) about three quarters of a second to figure out what kind of fight it would be, even though I already knew the result of the fight. You see, the outcome of a fight doesn’t always tell its story. Tommy Hearns got respectively kayod by Hagler and Barkley, but he put up a fight in both cases. Michael Moorer was winning his fight against Foreman before big George rammed two of Moorer’s teeth right through the rubber of his mouthpiece in the ninth to regain the heavyweight title at age 45. So I parked my white French Canadian ass on my spinning bike, pressed play, and enjoyed the show.

Artur: The Future King of the Ring

Physically, I found that Johnson looked slightly more imposing than Beterbiev. However, we all know that means absolutely nothing when it comes to fighting. The great Cus D’Amato once said that boxing is above all psychological, not physical. Cedric Agnew and Jean Pascal both looked more imposing than Kovalev, yet it didn’t deter Kovalev one bit from pursuing on his path of destruction to improve his KO ratio to near perfection. In a nutshell, Beterbiev got to work fairly early in the fight as he always does. His strategy was simple, yet effective: take command of the fight from the get-go, stalk his prey, find his range, and pick his shots intelligently. The first round probably won’t go down in history as a memorable one, yet Beterbiev landed two hard shots which served as a prelude of things to come.

Johnson’s strategy was also quite simple, but ineffective as all of his predecessors before him: move frequently to prevent Beterbiev from planting his feet and bombing away, stay out of range to the outside, hit and get out as quickly as possible, and clinch Beterbiev whenever he was in trouble, which quickly became the case as the fight progressed. Johnson’s constant movement gave Beterbiev a bit more trouble than he had been used to thus far (‘’trouble’’ is a big word in Beterbiev’s case), but they only served to delay the inevitable. It was only a matter of time before Beterbiev eventually found his range and connected the harder shots.

When Beterbiev began to seriously apply pressure, Johnson quickly reverted to survival mode. Overwhelmed and desperate, Johnson acted, or should I say, reacted, more out of instinct than strategy. Beterbiev officially began his demolition derby in the 5th after dropping Johnson twice; the first time with a stiff jab, and again just a few seconds later. In the sixth round, Johnson had a few interesting flashes, especially when he stood his ground and threw some combinations…but that was only because Beterbiev took his foot off the gas pedal and played possum with Johnson, probably to get some more mileage and to show everybody he had the engine to last more than a few rounds. In the following round (seventh), Beterbiev decided that it was time for him to put the outmatched Johnson out of his misery and punch out.

The Russian juggernaut of Chechen decent floored Johnson twice; the first time with a short left hook, and the second with a chopping right hand to the temple which served as the coup de grâce. Beterbiev’s record is now a stellar 9-0, 9 KOs. Unscathed, barely sweating and less out of breath than I was striding on my bike, his management tries to have him fight as much as possible in order to move him up the ranks of contendership. His destruction of poor Gabriel Campillo (I salute his courage) occurred only two months prior to his fight with Johnson. At this pace, it won’t be long before Artur Beterbiev challenges either Kovalev or Stevenson for a world title. And at the disconcerting rate he’s fighting and dispatching his opponents, it’s virtually only a matter of time before Beterbiev is crowned king.

That’s all for now folks. In next week’s column, I will tackle straight on the six (who, what, when, where, why, and how) important questions in hopes of explaining why Slavic fighters are so successful and seemingly dead-set on ruling the sport of boxing with an iron fist. Until then, Simon says: stay safe, take care of yourselves, and what’s around you.

À bientôt!

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