Artur Beterbiev - An Animal

Really surprised no one has been talking about him, this guy for me looks like a Light Heavyweight version of GGG. Stalks his prey and when he gets into punching range simply destroys. They're happy to put him in with pretty much anyone it looks like too, fought 5 journeyman, blasted them all away then put him in against Tavoris Cloud, who is most certainly no mug and in his sixth professional fight destroys him in 2 rounds, knocking him down 4 times. Looks like a machine.

Oh and apparently he beat Kovalev twice in the amateurs.

Here is destroying a helpless Tarvoris Cloud:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT6ORS4jNvI

Chilling.

Fantastic fighter. The signs were there in his 2nd fight, when he beat-up on the normally durable Rayco Saunders.

Artur Beterbiev will be a World Champion.

Like GGG we'll need to see him beat something decent....

Cloud was awful against Stevenson.....Didn't win a round.

Tillman beat Tyson twice in the Amateurs..

But he has potential..you're right.

Scary performance by Berterbiev against Cloud and whichever way you look at it, it's an eye-popping result on paper. He's clearly already a force and it probably won't be long before attention turns to him possibly getting in there with the Kovalevs and Stevensons of this world....Or Hopkins if he can roll back the years against Sergey next month.

Word of caution, though - Cloud is shot. Never particularly rated him in any case, but even against Stevenson last year you could see how he'd regressed. Prior to that, Campillo gave him a pretty painful beat-down before getting stiffed on the cards, and a 48-year-old Hopkins used his head as a speed bag. He looked short on confidence and ideas then, never mind now. There's a good chance that someone like Berterbiev would have always beaten Cloud, don't get me wrong, but much like Karpency bustling past Dawson the other week, I think Beterbiev beat his first 'name' at an opportune time.

But as I said, for a sixth professional fight you've still got to hand it to him - it's an impressive entry on his ledger and, no matter how far past his best I think Cloud is, nobody has ever decimated him like that. Isaac Chilema can be pretty cute with his defence and is an awkward customer who beat Bellew in that first fight, for me. Maybe that'd be a decent opponent for Beterbiev in the coming months. A few more wins against guys such as that and he'll be ready for the big guns in no time - and word around the camp fire is that Kovalev is still very, very upset about those amateur defeats and definitely plans to put it right in the pro ranks.

Yep, a real danger man at 175. Pretty much decapitated Cloud, who had never been dropped before. The fact that he twice beat Kovalev is as Truss said, rather meh as a detail on its own, but the normally Placid Kovalev does get into an almighty boobie on twitter whenever it's brought up, so maybe one or both of them were proper beatdowns? Anyway, I'm excited about him. Second most exciting Drqgo after Oleksander Ustyv, who beat Beterbiev in the amateurs, and pretty much mutilated a normally game enough Danie Bruwer. He's fighting as a cruiserweight now, but he's a decent height at 6'3, and will at some stage probably be the heavyweight champion of the world (hence my post on the AJ thread about him not having as much time as Hearn would like to sneak a title).

Cloud was pitiful...........

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Cloud was pitiful...........

Cloud is always pitiful when he steps up though.

I agree................The last knockdown had a sense of "Can I have my money now" about it.

I thought Bterbiew looked a bit stiff and there was little head movement. He has the power but it looked to me that he could be out boxed by a smooth operator.

Well, it was his sixth pro fight, and he most certainly won't be the finished article, but it's rare someone takes on an opponent who has mixed at world level so recently, and totally decimate him in two, especially when he has never been put down once in his career. Stevenson smacked him with some corking lefts and he is a seriously heavy handed fighter, but never really looked like putting him down. Whereas Beterbiev really just pancaked him.

There was something of the porter v malignaggi about it. One guy rips through a recognised durable world rated fighter, seemingly landing at will and jolting them with every shot. The winner looks like an unbeatable beast, and the loser shot. It's only when you watch their next fights that you know the answer.

He was a top amateur and kovalev wasn't so no surprise he beat him really... And he Might have a few more medals to his name had he not fought at heavyweight for part of it.

Not as smooth as ggg but you can see the comparison, cuts the ring down and unloads. Need to see what he looks like when someone hits him back or takes him into the later rounds... Much the same as we're asking about crusher and golovkin, but certainly one to watch.

I'll hold my decision on him yet. He seems slow, the ring was tiny and cloud gave up. Impressive 6th fight though on paper.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ur7VXR103Q

lots of talk about usyk and beterbiev so here they are fighting in 2011 world champs (beterbiev ranked no1 in the world at the time).

They fought again in the london olympics with Usyk winning.