No doubt he is a strong dude for his size unlike Tyson Fury for example Any heavyweights he could beat? Like in a one off kind of way, not mounting a heavyweight journey plenty of examples in the past of smaller fighters KOing behemoth punchers Like who remembers when 5 ft 8 Melvin Manhoef iced Mark Hunt?? Out cold or when 180 pound Kaoklai knocked out the hard hitting 290 pound might mo? lets keep it fun and realistic at the same time
I wouldn't want to see that puny light heavyweight thrown in there with that ferocious blob..Ruiz would literally eat that poor Beterbiev alive!
I mean Briedis KTFO Charr so i don't think it is that unfeasible for Beterbiev to KO a smaller heavy but i don't think it would happen against a top ten.
how about cruiserweight first. that division is still stacked without Usyk. Marco Huck would give him a run for his money. He pretty much beat Povetkin in his prime.
I think he'd be a bit more powerful than Heavyweight Adamek, but far less skilled than the same Adamek. Don't think Beterbiev fares well at Heavyweight. Now Cruiserweight? He'd fare better there, but he belongs exactly where he is.
Only way he would perform at heavyweight is if he bulked up to the 200s in lean muscle from a young age. Considering his performance against Usyk though I think he could perform at cruiserweight.
It seems an odd stretch but then he did plenty well against Usyk in the AM's. Still the only guy to drop him. I guess it depends how he puts the weight on. His power looks to be particularly unpleasant to be on the end of. If that carried up then he could certainly score a W up at HW. But I think it's dependant on his power as I don't think he'd be able to use his physical strength up at HW effectively, which is a big part of the pressure he applies
If there was thorough testing to ensure it was a fair contest and gloves that were agreed were actually worn, id say he'd take Whyte pretty convincingly. Too skilful for the limited slugger
I think if a guy is a puncher at LHW he can probably hurt and KO HWs. Certain LHWs probably walk around at about 200lbs or so without too much extra fat. There are plenty of HWs that are fat small statured guys around 6ft who could potentially make LHW with diet and weight cutting. Ruiz, Chisora, Povektin, (Chagaev obviously). After these guys leave amateurs it's clear they may have multiple options as far as which weight class they choose, depending on how much they want to cut. That's why as we speak Beterbiev and Usyk fought but now Usyk is HW and Beterbiev is down at LHW talking about fighting Kovalev who got beat by Korobov in the ams, who is now down at MW. So that's a spread from MW to HW there when you link them all. THe point is, Beterbiev could have chosen Cruiser and now it wouldn't seem so unbelievable that he would fight at HW. But I think Beterbiev's reach would be a problem against the long SHWs with skill and he'd struggle to physically bully them to get his shots in. But I could see him KO'ing a lot of guys in and around his stature, and of course AJ. I would actually like to see him against Wilder just out of curiosity since he has the amateur background, just to see if he can get inside and do the job.
Yeah there's still important legacy fights for him at LHW. If he can get those taken care of within the next 12 months or so(fat chance of that due to boxing politics) I'd like to see him go up to CW and finish his career out there.
