Some interesting outtakes: 1. Fighting Kovalev is his top priority. 2. Although he wants to fight Kovalev, he gonna be rooting for Canelo, cuz he likes his style and skilled fighters overall. When they asked him about outcome of the fight, he said he never makes predictions. 3. There is some bad blood between them. Both think they won their amateur fight in Turkey and Kovalev in some old interview said that he landed so many shots that Beterbievs backhead were hitting his ass, ahaha. Beterbiev is soft-spoken, but i am from North Caucasus too and i know temper of guys like Beterbiev, they gonna punish you even for a tiny disrespect. That gonna make their fight defo interesting. 4. Said that Kovalev's nickname in his home town was "Noodles" and laughed. I personally know only one men with nickname noodles, its a character from movie "once upon a time in America". 4. He fought Usyk and wasnt really impressed, said he is good at running with high guard, haha. Cruiserweight is a weak division and he gonna aknowledge Usyk only when he does something in heavy weight. Overall it was a pretty weak interview cuz of two journalists, who were seemingly intimidated by AB and were scared to ask some good questions. Russian boxing community already called those 2 interviewers ***gots. This content is protected
1. Of course, but this version of Kova won't last long I figure. 2. Rooting for Canelo? Then there really is some bad blood between those two! 3. Yeah, both claim they won that. Would have seen them against eachother early to mid 2016. 4. Cruiser a weak division? Pretty sure he would do pretty well at the weight, but don't think he would be the best even now.
While I respect Beterbiev as a tough-as-nails fighter, I love the way he and others are lining up to fight Kovalev only now that SK is clearly over the hill. Tsk.
Are you sure it was in Turkey? I guess you're thinking about Beterbiev vs. Gvozdyk (that was in Turkey indeed). Beterbiev vs. Kovalev was in Russia (well, the first fight, at least). And that is important, because, according to Kovalev, the boxing politics was against him and Beterbiev was kind of favorite of the federation officials. Anyway, that fight was controversial. Yeah, that's exactly why Kovalev was called like that.
Or just a good calculation, if Canelo wins the Canelo -Beterbiev fight is possible. And this means huge money for Beterbiev.
If Canelo wins, it's very unlikely he will fight Beterbiev any time soon, certainly if the Kova fight had been close and/or controversial.
Canelo doesn't have many options, if he wins against Kovalev, with whom can he earn a lot of money? In his "native" weight, he doesn't have many opponents for "big fights". And if he loses to Beterbiev, nothing bad will happen, it just turns out that Beterbiev is "too big, too strong".
Oh yes he has! At 160 the biggest fight in boxing is still there for him. All he has to do is sign. And then there's Andrade at 160 too, also a fight that would be very easy to make for a lot of money. At 168 there's Callum Smith and maybe Benavidez for Mexican bragging rights. Plenty of options. Beterbiev isn't a big money fight (yet?)... And a huge risk at that.
Cruiserweight a weak division eh? I’d love to see how Beterbiev would do if he moved up and fought Gassiev or Briedis
BJS, Golovkin 3, and Jacobs 2 (after he beats chavez jr) would all sell as much as a Beterbiev fight, while being a fraction of the risk. And saying nothing bad will happen, seems like an odd assumption to me. Getting hit so hard in the head that you are rendered unconscious, is a bad thing. Or.. he could have his will broken and mind altered (mild brain damage). He could take a sustained beating that ends his prime. He could take a career threatening orbital bone fracture. I mean... for a sport that has seen as many primes ended, at best, and critical hospitalizations, at worst, I suppose I dont get the 'he's got nothing to lose' mentality. It woukd be dumb of him to do especially when theres a third Golovkin fight on the table.
Interesting comments. First, if Canelo beats Kov, there will be no fight with AB. Canelo strategically picked an older slipping opponent who has seen better days. He’s not going to fight a prime LHW like AB. Second, Kov will fight anyone but he’s be smart to find a way to not fight Beterbiev because I don’t think it would end well for Kov. Third, I don’t think Beterbiev wants anything to do with top Cruisers because true you are too big. He’s not a huge LHW, he is perfectly suited to the weight but this is Beterbievs ceiling. No shame in that, he’s great at the weight and will probably have a good reign as champ. The Canelo Kov fight is interesting and I’m going to watch it but I’d me more interested in seeing him fight the top MWs because that’s his natural weight. Unless he’s jacked on steroids, I can’t see Canelo being a serious full time LHW. I’m cool if he chooses to not fight GGG a third time. Lots of good options at MW that will showcase Canelo’s talents. LHW is too big for him, unless he can dig up some older guys who are not prime. Even if he goes to SMW, the top guys are pretty big and there are no big money fights for him there at the moment. Sorry to spoil the fun but I like fighters fighting at their natural weights. The Gvoz-Beterbiev fight and Taylor Prograis fights are prime examples. Both prime, true weights, let the best fighter win. That’s my kind of boxing.
You are right, it was russian championship in Irkutsk. Beterbiev said his main goal was to fight russian oylmpic team captain Evgeny Makarenko.
Neither of them is scared of the other. Beterbiev is finally free from his managerial and promotional problems, so he's been making his presence known on a fight-by-fight basis. He's knows he's going to have to face Kovalev at some point, as Kov is still a Champion and one of the top fighters in the division. Beterbiev is in "strap season", so to speak ... and Kovalev still shouldn't be underestimated.
