Artur Beterbiev’s skills are very underrated

Beautiful body straights. He also timed Gvodzyk's jab / lead very well and avoided it in a masterfully awkward way. He reminds me of those tough, tank Thai boxers with massive experience.

 

Underrated, maybe. But he has problem with timing, his ring IQ is not very good he doesn't seem to be ahead of the action. His anticipation and responsiveness to what his opponent does seem to be slow compared to many other fighters. He compensates this with good stance and good discipline. He is well composed.

That said, I think he would easily beat Kovalev because of the styles. Kovalv is a forward sniper who likes to pick his time and work with his jab. The aggression of Beterbiev would be too much. If Kovalev was more of a defensive jabber and counter attacker I would give him the edge.

 

Underrated or not, still his main weapon is power. Even his short arm punches hurt.

 

Is his ring IQ low? I think nope but not very high neither. His strategies based on punch power. I can't blame him for having powerful punches. That's how he is genetically.

 

What kind of punch power does Beterbiev have, I don't understand. He is hitting his opponent from a short range, but he kills them. Very interesting, you never see him throwing overhand punches, his shots are short-ranged but still very destructive.

 

Watch his strength workout and especially his emphasis on the wrist strength. Obviously he is genertically blessed, but he is also tremendously dedicated as well.

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There is a video, where he explains his power and shows those excercises like in video. His main point, to punch hard, your fists and wrists need to be like hammers, strong and durable.

 

He has shown vast improvement
In his Defense as well.

 

he puts all the leverage he can into every shot. locks up his joints when he swings, thats why he looks so stiff. just watch him as he throws, you can actually see his tendons shrink to lock his body stiff. that creates lots of power cause you dont lose any energy through soft tissue absorption. its great for creating power but it forces you to commit to a movement. which means that once he decides to throw, a counterpuncher knows exactly where he will be throughout that movement. makes him easy to time. theres no fluidity to his punching, just stiff hammering. it also makes it impossible to sell a feint against a good fighter, cause they can see him go rigid when hes throwing for real, vs the relaxed muscles when hes feinting.

 

There's a reason he is 17-0 17 ko. He has great natural strength and total dedication to his craft. An amazing fighter.

 

His inside punches are deadly some with just slight body torque, some arm, devastating.

 

Perhaps that's why he's so adept at throwing short compact shots. Hes aware of his vulnerablity of being countered and minimizes the risk by keeping his punches short.

 

perhaps. dont know why he does it, just notice that he does.