Biography
| NAME | Artur BETERBIEV |
|---|---|
| BORN | January 21, 1985 |
| AGE | 39 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |  RUSSIA, Khasavyurt |
| RESIDENCE |  CANADA, Montréal |
| WEIGHT | 175 lbs (79.55 kg) |
| HEIGHT | 5'11½" (1.82 m) |
| REACH | 73" (185 cm) |
| DIVISION | Light heavyweight |
| STANCE | Orthodox |
| WINS | 20 (20 KOs) |
| LOSSES | 0 |
| DRAWS | 0 |
| ROUNDS BOXED | 98 |
| KO PERCENTAGE | 100% |
| PROFESSIONAL TITLES | IBF World Champion 2017 WBC World Champion 2019 Lineal World Champion 2019 WBO World Champion 2022 |
| TITLES HELD | WBO–NABO champion (2014-2015)
WBO Int. champion (2015-2016) IBF North American champion (2014-2017) WBA–NABA champion (2014-2017) |
| AMATEUR ACHIEVEMENTS | European Champion 2006
World Cup Champion 2008 World Champion 2009 European Champion 2010 AIBA P4P #1 2010 |
From his childhood Artur has admired two great boxers in Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. Muhammad Ali was always Artur's favourite with Tyson second. The Russian boxer has been compared to Tyson due to his come forward aggressive style, devastating punching power and ability to finish opponents when they are vulnerable. Beterbiev, however, considers himself as an ordinary boxer compared to Mike Tyson who at 20-years-old became the youngest boxer to win a heavyweight title and reigned as the undisputed heavyweight champion.
In 1991, six years after the birth of Beterbiev, the Soviet Union broke up and the life for everyone became very hard. His parents did their best to make ends meet, they were a large family and his father supported all of them to make sure they had all the necessary things. He sadly suffered the tragic loss of his father in 2001 in a car accident. His father was the only financial income for the family. Besides father, Artur’s brothers supported him financially when he was in the juniors and at the beginning of his career in the adults. As for his mother, she took care of Artur and his four elder brothers. During his training camps he stuck to the strict diet that his mother provided.
Artur would go on to become a decorated amateur, he stopped counting the number amateurs fights he had when it reached over 100 bouts. Overall, to his estimate, he had several hundred fights in his amateur career. He passed from juniors to adults at the age of 18. The following year at the age of 19, he won the bronze medal at the Russian Championships in Samara. Through a vigorous selection process he made his way to the Russian team where he competed with Evgeny Makarenko, captain of the Russian team, who by that time had already been a two-time winner of the World Championships in 2001 and 2003 and European Championships in 2002 and 2004. After becoming number one in the national team in 2006 he was selected to represent Russia at the European Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where he won the gold medal. In 2007, he secured his place as number one in Team Russia when he beat Evgeny Makarenko in the finals of the Russian Championships to qualify for the World Championships in Chicago, USA, where he won the silver medal. In 2008 he won the World Cup, and in 2009 he reached the top of his amateur career by winning the gold medal at the World Championships in Milan, Italy. In 2010 he won the European Championships for the second time and the same year was named as the International Boxing Association's best amateur boxer of the world. He participated in the Olympics in 2008 and 2012.
In 2013 he ended his amateur career and moved to Montreal, Canada, to become a professional boxer. Upon turning professional, Beterbiev left behind his family and friends to fulfill his dream of becoming a professional world champion. He relocated to the boxing hotbed of Montreal by joining the promoter of international boxing events, Groupe Yvon Michel (GYM). From the first training session, Artur impressed his future coach Marc Ramsay, a trainer of the Canadian amateur boxing team from 2001 to 2004, who had led Jean Pascal to the Athens Olympic Games and to the WBC and lineal light-heavyweight world titles, as well as his conditioning coach André Kulesza, who had already trained world champions Léonard Dorin, Lucian Bute, Adrian Diaconu and Éric Lucas. Kulesza admitted that the new rookie was the most gifted athlete he had ever worked with. It was at the famous Bell Centre in Montreal that Beterbiev made his pro debut on June 8, 2013, producing a second-round technical knockout against American Christian Cruz. After winning his first five professional bouts, Beterbiev would face off against former IBF light-heavyweight world champion Tavoris Cloud for the vacant NABA Light Heavyweight championship on September 27, 2014. From the opening bell of the fight, Cloud was outmatched and unable to cope with the power of Beterbiev, getting dropped three times in the first round via devastating and concussive combinations. This was the first time that Cloud had ever been dropped in his professional career. Beterbiev ended the fight in round two, landing multiple hard shots to the head that knocked Cloud out. He was unable to beat referee Michael Griffin's count, and Beterbiev earned his first professional title.
Artur Beterbiev continued his climb toward the top of the 175-pound division. None of his first eight bouts would see the fifth round, as Beterbiev earned stoppage wins every time out. In his first appearance on a major US TV network, he fought on Showtime on December 19, 2014. Beterbiev dispatched the previously undefeated Jeff Page Jr, stopping him in the 2nd round and winning the vacant IBF North American and WBO-NABO light-heavyweight titles. Spaniard southpaw Gabriel Campillo, a former WBA light-heavyweight world champion, was next in line. On April 4, 2015 at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City Artur would face off against him in an IBF eliminator bout for the number two spot in the IBF world rankings, which was televised in the first Premier Boxing Champions show live on NBC. Beterbiev dropped Campillo late in the first round. Finally in the fourth round, Beterbiev would land a straight uppercut hybrid that would hit Campillo square on the chin, and followed it up with a left hook before walking to his corner while his opponent slumped to the canvas. The PSI detector in his gloves stated that the first punch landed with 973 lbs of force. The next fight for Beterbiev was scheduled outside of Canada. On June 12, 2015 the powerful Russian took on veteran southpaw Alexander Johnson at Chicago's UIC Pavilion. Using a vicious overhand right, Beterbiev knocked Johnson down twice in the fifth round and a third time in the seventh before finishing him in the same round. With that win, Beterbiev added the vacant WBO International light-heavyweight title to his other four titles.
After an absence caused by a shoulder injury, Artur Beterbiev climbed back in the ring on June 4, 2016, at the Bell Centre against Argentine Olympian Ezequiel Maderna, whom he defeated by stoppage in the 4th round. Beterbiev then advanced his record as he made short work of Isidro Prieto, whose only defeat as a professional was a decision loss to Eleider Alvarez in August 2015. Within thirty seconds of the opening round, a counter right hand to Prieto’s head dropped him to the canvas for the first time in his professional career. A barrage of punches from Beterbiev followed up, dropping Prieto to the canvas again. Prieto struggled to get up, prompting referee Michael Griffin to stopping the fight.
Artur Beterbiev is now highly ranked amongst all of the world governing bodies and ready for a pursuit of his first world championship in the near future. With his apprenticeship as a professional fighter complete, his goal of becoming the best light-heavyweight in the world is in sight. Beterbiev believes that physically and psychologically he has been ready to win the world championship title since 2015. His most important fight is the next one. He prefers to achieve his goal patiently, because, he believes, everything comes together at the right time.