During the fight the commentators mentioned that as he fight better HW opponents Usyk will definitely have Anatoly Lomachenko in his corner.. Teddy Atlas is not the right coach for Gvozdyk and I believed that since the Stevenson fight..
I think Gvozdyk was supposed to win this. If you would build the perfect fighter to beat Beterbiev, well that would be a fighter ressembling the style of Gvozdyk, moving in and out and using the ring. Gvozdyk made a strategic mistake that is not part of his style which was to exchange punches with a more powerful guy. His entire fault.
Papachenko will be there for Usyk only for Wilder, Fury and AJ. (Even that is not guaranteed if Loma has a fight at the same time). But guys like Ruiz, Parker, Whyte, Miller, etc. Usyk will have to fight with his own trainer.
no, Gov was solid world class. The difference may be that Beef may be an elite, like Kov proved he was.
Yep and he's such a pro and so experienced he knew he could systematically wear him down over twelve rounds.
I ever so slightly overrated Beterbiev in this one, expecting him to get Gvozdyk out of there inside 8 rounds. Both are highly skilled top tier fighters in a shark tank of a division, and I've always been most impressed by Artur. When he bust onto the scene he completely obliterated former (protected) beltholder Cloud, in way more impressive fashion as B-Hop and Stevenson managed, and then went on to destroy Campillo next before his career suddely stalled. If you're that destructive, it's more than likely you can overcome inactivity and regression of opposition, and when I saw him destroy Kalajdzic (who was blatantly robbed against Browne) I was certain he did. Gvozdyk is very good, with very good power and high level skills, but he had to fight Beterbiev.
I'm not sure he was, it felt to me that he was fighting for his life from the first bell, nervous, footwork not right, I think he realised he was in with a monster and done the best he could, tit for tat it was not, one was getting broken down the other one was treating it a bit like a walk in the park. My opinion is Gvozdyk isn't as good as people thought and Beterbiev is better than people thought. He was far to weak to even stand with Beterbiev before he fatigued, getting ragged about with brushing shots
Watch the match again, without the commentary. They biased you and put thoughts in your head that shouldn't have been there. That's always how Gvozdyk fights, and he was doing his thing through 5, hell he had one of his better rounds in the 8th. The match was competitive throughout.
That's how Gvozdyk fights. He's technically very good but you are right about looking nervous - that's pretty much how he always fights until he gets into his flow (typically fairly late on). The only exceptions are the times where he goes for an early knockout. Gvozdyk has huge gifts (excellent technique, good power, great size, and he's pretty tough as we saw), but he's a good and smart guy who fights rather than a natural fighter. I feel this is why he usually takes considerable time at the start to settle in. This time, Beterbiev put so much pressure on that he never really got going.
No, not really. He's still very good and I thought he looked so in that fight. Hopefully he's out again soon and gets right back into the mix
Agreed, which is why I give him particular credit for holding his feet and throwing back toward the end of the fight.
I watched it with Russian commentary (highly recommend this as no one can influence you at all) and for me the fight was extremely close up until the second half of the 8th or the 9th. Gvozdyk hid it as best he could but Artur knew he had him hurt then and didn't let him off the hook. Even when he was getting battered, Gvozdyk was trying to fight back. He never seemed scared or overawed to me. What a phenomenal fight from two phenomenal fighters, with no "A side" BS at all. Wish more boxers had these guys courage and integrity
I could read that fight, you could feel the under current what was happening, it was written in Gvozdyks body language, he showed great guts to fight through because inside he was thinking " oh ****"
I will do. Gvozdyk reminded me of a fighter that was in the fight, but only a matter of time, I promise I'm not being negative, I just felt Gvozdyk done his best and maybe, a little maybe, Beterbiev was pedestrian knowing all was under control. Gvozdyk never ever beats him, if they fought again it becomes easier. Beterbievs skilled for someone that can rely on power so much, he really is a beast, he's quite fast when he needs to be to. I'm currently sitting in a pub with a mad scotch man that's just put cliff ****ing Richard on, it's a Christmas tune as well