Beterbiev vs Johnson is done, October 6

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Callum Johnson, the British light-heavyweight champion, heads to Chicago today for the toughest test of his career when he challenges Russian Artur Beterbiev for the International Boxing Federation world crown next Saturday night.

But yesterday the 33-year-old from Lincolnshire, unbeaten in 17 contests, travelled to Boston to the grave of his father, Paul, to pay homage and seek inspiration from his “best friend and hero” who died unexpectedly in February 2016 at the age of 52.

“I’ll go there and see him. Tell him I’ll see him when I get back with a new belt. It worked with Frank Buglioni, when I won the British title [in March], hopefully it works again,” Johnson said.

“I know Beterbiev’s a tougher task than Frank, but he’s only human at the end of the day. I just know, it’s not even chance, if I detonate on his chin he’ll go. But at the same time, if he detonates on my chin I’ll probably go.”

Johnson, a renowned puncher, will back himself on the first Eddie Hearn Matchroom Boxing card to take place in the United States, in a new multiyear deal with over-the-top streaming service DAZN, which will broadcast the contest in five territories including the USA.

Johnson believes he can put the Russian, who has stopped or retired all of his opponents, to the sword. “Because he is so strong himself and so powerful, he’s always had it his own way. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I have never come across anyone stronger than me in the amateurs or professional ranks,” added Johnson, who won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games for Scotland.


“I’ve boxed Russians before and I beat them. I boxed one Russian in the amateurs, he was unbeaten in 30 fights, he was two-time European champion, Russian champion at the time and I wasn’t expected to win. He had demolished everyone. I met this Nikita Ivanov in the final of a tournament. All the way to the final he just stopped everyone. I beat him. We met in the middle of the ring and it was him that started going back. I know I’ve got the strength and power to match anybody. I’m very skilful as well. It will be on the day. It is what it is.”

Johnson makes his play on the same night that UFC star Conor McGregor makes his comeback to the sport in Las Vegas after two years away.

“It’s a shame we’ve got to up against Conor McGregor, because he’s probably the biggest name in combat sports. We’ve got our hands full to go against that. But I’m going there to do a job and I’m going to give it my all. Everything I have.

“The way I look at it, I’ve already won. I’m just a kid from a small town. Nobody does anything from Boston. There’s loads of history there, but in terms of sport we don’t get credit for anything.”















'Callum Johnson is targeting a ‘Callum win double’ and follow gym-mate Callum Smith’s World title win with his own stellar triumph at the elite level when he challenges IBF World Light-Heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Saturday night (October 6) live on DAZN.

Johnson’s fellow Joe Gallagher-trained banger Smith knocked out George Groves in Saudi Arabia to win the World Boxing Super Series and bag the WBA Super, WBC Diamond and Ring Magazine Super-Middleweight crowns.

Boston banger Johnson (17-0 12 KOs) knows he has to put in the performance of his career against Russian wrecking machine Beterbiev (12-0 12KOs), but after returning to action with a stunning first round KO of Frank Buglioni in his last outing in London in March – and the 33 year old predicts a violent showdown with the champion on Saturday, and another memorable night for Gallagher’s gym.

“Callum’s win has just inspired me even more to win here,” said Johnson. “It was a stunning performance and he’s the number one in the division now, and that’s what I want to become at Light-Heavyweight.

“I’ve dreamt of moments like this since i was a kid. No one else wants to fight him but I can’t wait to get in there with him. I’m living the dream and I genuinely believe I will shock the world.

“I know about him, if I wasn’t confident I wouldn’t be here. We were amateurs around the same time but we never came across each other to fight, but I would have done then and now we are fighting and it’s on a massive stage for a World title so it’s even better.

“He is a strong, powerful beast and he’s a very good fighter, it’s a tough ask, but it’s a challenge that I am up for and I’m full of belief.

“We’re not going to have to look for each other. He likes to KO people and so do I. We’ll meet in the middle of the ring and let the bombs go. There will be thought involved and we can both box, but we both want to take people out with bog shots, so it’s going to be exciting

“I shocked people [against Buglioni] and I don’t really know why. People had forgotten about me, out of sight, out of mind, but I showed them what I am capable of against Frank. I’ve been written off again and maybe rightly so, but I can KO any Light-Heavyweight in the world, and he’s no exception.

“People said ‘he’s never boxed anyone as good as Frank Buglioni’ – no disrespect to Frank, but I could name 20 fighters I’ve boxed that are better than Frank. Yes, it was in the amateurs with headguards, but just because people hadn’t seen me do it in the amateurs, doesn’t mean that I couldn’t. There’s still a lot more to see from me, my best has not come out in the pros.”

 

Beterbiev is one of my favs and I've been a fan of his for about a decade so I'm pulling for him. That said, I've been a Callum Johnson for quite a while as well and how can you not feel bad for rooting against him when you see videos like this? If he does manage to pull it off I'll definitely be really pleased for him.

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Beterbiev was also devastated by the loss of his father, although he was in his still in his teens when it happened.

'The shocking loss of his father had a devastating impact for not just Beterbiev, but his whole family. It was hard life after the break-up of the Soviet Union. They were not rich, his father was bringing in the only income of money that kept the electricity on, put food and water on the table for him and his four brothers. He was a true man of the house so to speak and his father, who was a shuttle bus driver, did his best to support all of them. He was the only bread-winner at that time. Beterbiev remembers that when he was invited to the junior Russian national team at the age of 16 he was asked to buy the uniform. His father, who had some savings at around 200-300$ gave his last savings to buy the uniform for his son.

”Five days after I won the medal my father died,” revealed Beterbiev. ”I was only 16 years old when my father died in a tragic accident. His death was a huge blow for me and my family.”

His father’s presence always remains with him and that plays a huge role in him keeping a promise to become world champion. The alone fact that his father finally realised that what his son had set out to achieve, was a reality.

”He will always be with me,” he said. ”I wanted to quit the boxing when my father died, but I decided to continue, because my father gave me approval just before his death.”

The sudden passing of his father came at a crucial time in the life and certainly the growth of his career. He longed for his fathers wishes to allow him to assemble a path in the sport. Initially, he wouldn’t and that was because Beterbiev was a funny clever minded child, who had great success in his education. As soon as he finally got the approval from his father, tragedy hit him.

”How long until he did approve of your boxing?” I asked.

”Until I won the bronze medal at the Junior World Championship. He was proud of me and for the first time approved of me practising the boxing.”








'It’s been an amazing turnaround for light heavyweight contender Callum Johnson.

The unbeaten boxer-puncher from Lincolnshire, England, was inactive for all of 2017 due to health and injury issues, but blasted his way back into contention in March with a stunning first-round stoppage of Frank Buglioni to claim the British championship.

It was the type of performance that sends shockwaves through the sport. It was the type of performance that gets you noticed. And it turned out to be the type of performance that would set up a potentially lifechanging world title showdown.

Opponent Artur Beterbiev, who is rated No. 7 by The Ring at light heavyweight, is the IBF titleholder and a prohibitive favorite. However, Johnson has given it his all in training camp and will arrive at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Saturday determined to upset the fearsome Russian champion.

“All the hard work is done now and we’re just going over final preparations,” said Johnson (17-0, 12 knockouts) in an interview with The Ring. “Everything has gone to plan, we’ve done the training, we’ve got a game plan, and we’re ready to go.

“I’ve completed some good sparring with (new Ring Magazine and WBC super middleweight champion) Callum (Smith) and Sam Hyde among others. We also did some good technical sparring out here in Chicago and worked on tactics. We’re just getting the juices flowing and putting the finishing touches on.”

The overwhelming majority of fans and experts feel that it will Beterbiev (12-0, 12 KOs) putting the finishing touches on Johnson.

The new champion knocked out Enrico Koelling in the 12th and final round to capture a vacant world title belt in November. Prior to his perfect professional run, Beterbiev was also recognized as one of Russia’s top amateurs, claiming two gold medals at the European Championships in 2006 and 2010, and gold at the World Championships in 2009.

“Beterbiev had an extensive amateur pedigree, but I also have a good amateur pedigree,” argued Johnson, who captured a Commonwealth gold medal at Delhi 2010.

“We’re both 33, we both can punch, we both come to fight, and we’ve both been pretty inactive over the last couple of years. I think it’s all down to who gets it right on the night. We both like to get down to business, so I think the fans watching will be in for a treat.”


It’s not Johnson’s job to portray his opponent as indestructible. The laidback Englishman has completed a grueling and taxing training camp and, despite the odds, his paramount objective is to knock Beterbiev into the middle of next week. He’s a fighter after all and that’s what fighters do.

Johnson’s final hard week of training was completed without trainer Joe Gallagher who was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with Callum Smith. The Ring Trainer of the Year for 2015 guided Smith to a seventh-round knockout over George Groves but had very little time to celebrate.

“I travelled to America with Joe when he got back to the U.K.,” said Johnson. “I did my last week of training at home, but all the hard work was done anyway. I’d done all the main training, and Joe just set me a program which I completed.

“Joe got back from Jeddah on the Saturday morning, we were in the gym Saturday afternoon and flew out to America on Sunday. He was wide awake because he was still buzzing. The adrenaline was keeping him going.”

The entire Gallagher stable is on a high following Friday’s World Boxing Super Series final. Smith’s victory was arguably the greatest to come out of that decorated camp in Bolton, although Johnson was very confident that his friend would prevail.

“It was unbelievable but expected at the same time,” said Saturday’s challenger. “It wasn’t a shock in terms of the performance, or the way the fight went. It was just like ‘wow’ in terms of watching the event and how it all unfolded.”

Johnson now looks to add a fistful of icing to one very large cake. If he can pull off a victory over Beterbiev, there will be no time limit on the celebrations which would be sure to follow.

 

Artur Beterbiev – a history of fighting

In 2015 Boxing News spoke to then rising light-heavyweight Artur Beterbiev


‘Until I get my hand raised and know that I’ve won, I’m savage. It’s nothing personal, it’s just the way to win.’ Declan Warrington speaks to Artur Beterbiev




IT might just transpire that the world’s finest light-heavyweight goes by neither the name of Kovalev, or Stevenson, and instead is a man who to date has had only eight professional fights.


The power with which Russia’s newest wrecking ball punches, married with his natural boxing ability and indisputable, inherent spite, marks Artur Beterbiev’s threat out like almost no other, even in boxing’s most destructive division.

Greater challenges than Jeff Page Jnr and Gabriel Campillo are required, but if those performances, Beterbiev’s history of violence and the troubled environment that shaped him are to provide an indicator of his ability to challenge the 175lb world champions, it won’t be for aggression or hunger he is found wanting.

Born in 1985 in Dagestan, a mountainous Russian region infamous for its anarchy and corruption, in which organised crime is said to flourish amid kidnappings and violence, firearms and assassinations, Beterbiev may not have been brought up in a permanent war zone but a dark, sinister threat was always present as he grew.


Even if that violence didn’t directly affect he and his family, the two Chechan wars, for independence from Russia, which claimed the lives of thousands and bled into Dagestan, unquestionably did. They created so many refugees that at one point the Beterbiev household, in the small city of Khasavyurt, swelled to 30, and ensured both insurgence, further violence and a military presence in the region thereafter.

It has been claimed Dagestan produces more elite boxers, amateur wrestlers and MMA fighters per capita than any other region in the world. Given the nature of Beterbiev’s style – brutal; ruthless; clinical – it is difficult to think of a more appropriate grounding than the combination of domestic discontent and a culture in which street fighting was common; those in Dagestan remain among Russia’s poorest today.

A young Beterbiev, who from the age of “eight, nine or 10 years old” earned a negligible wage at a local petrol garage where he worked filling cars, had the same lust for street-fighting as many others of his generation. It was only his brothers’ intervention that took him to a boxing gym, beginning the honing of a strength and skillset that have made him among the most dangerous and feared fighters on the planet, the latest symbol of the growing power of the East.

“I don’t remember everything because I was a young kid, but the memories aren’t good,” Beterbiev told Boxing News. “We used to adopt refugees from Chechnya, sometimes 30 people were [living] in our house. It wasn’t a small house, but it wasn’t like a hotel.

“Of course I’m worried about [the region today]. I still have some family there. It’s just sad that it’s happening, but it’s not bad like it used to be before.

“I was a troubled kid. I always used to fight at school, in the streets. If there was a street tournament I’d fight outside there. I was an angry kid, and it was a tough childhood. I had my principles. If it didn’t work my way I would start to fight.

“It was normal. Everybody in that region used to fight between each other. We had lots of free time, it’s what we used to do.

“I started boxing at 10, 11 years old. Because I was always fighting in the streets my brothers decided to bring me to a boxing class, and a wrestling class. I used to do both. I was raised by my brothers. To me, they’re like fathers.

“I was kicked out from the wrestling school but I never came back. I was kicked out of the boxing school but I always came back, and asked if I could continue to train. [I was thrown out because] I always used to fight when I wasn’t supposed to.

“It’s like a school for us. We didn’t have many other sports, we’d maybe play soccer. We’d go to school for one half of the day, and go to the gym the other half of the day. Since the age of five, six, seven years old, parents send kids to boxing, wrestling or MMA classes. It’s just tradition there, like 80 per cent of the kids are going to either boxing or wrestling. I knew right away it was for me.”

It took Beterbiev only six months to win his first local junior championship and begin the largely-upward trajectory that took him from wild, youthful street fighter to an amateur of almost the very highest calibre. Winning silver at the 2007 World Championships and gold two years later and becoming the 2006 and 2010 European champion, the Russian also twice defeated outstanding compatriot Sergey Kovalev, today’s WBA Super, IBF and WBO light-heavyweight king.

Further fine victories over Michael Hunter Jnr, Abbos Atoev and Evgeny Makarenko, coupled with the stoppages of Ismayl Sillakh and Siju Shabazz, enhanced Beterbiev’s reputation as a fighter truly capable of earning parity with the era’s amateur greats, but his ultimate goal, of becoming an Olympic champion having reached Beijing 2008 and London 2012, eluded.

“It’s the peak of an amateur boxing career, to win at the Olympic Games, so it was my dream, I was always chasing to be the best in the world,” said Beterbiev, who spoke toBN via interpreter Dokk Dudayev. “It was very hard for me, mentally [not to win at the Olympics]. It took a lot of time to recover mentally and to decide what to do next.

“I wanted to become a professional boxer a long time ago, but me and my family all wanted for me to participate and win the Olympic Games so I had to postpone my professional career. But if it wasn’t for that I would have become a pro boxer after the first Olympics [at Beijing, in 2008].

“It wasn’t really a rivalry with Kovalev. Actually, the rivalry was with [Russian captain] Evgeny Makarenko. I had a plan to beat him. I was following my plan, and Kovalev – we fought, yes – but he wasn’t something important, just another fight. Makarenko was number one back then.”

Complementing his aggression, other signs of Beterbiev’s difficult former environment remain – “the most important thing I got from my amateur career was the discipline, I’m disciplined by myself; I never missed training, even if I’m sick, and I’m still doing that” – and, though the collapse of his amateur ambitions can be a burden, through it his urgency for professional progress became a strength.

Despite just 15 months and 11 rounds over five successful paid fights, Beterbiev’s promoter Yvon Michel matched the Russian with Tavoris Cloud, the seasoned former IBF champion who had contested a world title in his previous seven. Only Bernard Hopkins and WBC champion Adonis Stevenson had previously beaten the American also known as “Thunder”, yet Beterbiev dismantled him in less than two rounds, effectively forcing him to quit after four knockdowns as merciless as they were swift.

“I used to fight the same style when I was amateur,” says Beterbiev, who left Dagestan to study physical education in Moscow for eight years from the age of 17 and similarly has relocated to Montreal, where he is trained by Marc Ramsay, to pursue his professional potential.

“I like to show a nice fight to the fans, and I’m just adjusting some little stuff when I came pro from an amateur, but this was always my style. I was always the aggressor, but only in the ring.

“When I’m in the ring I’m quite nasty. Until I get my hand raised and know that I’ve won, I’m savage. In Russia, we call it ‘sports madness, sports aggression’. But it’s nothing personal, it’s just the way to win.”

Regardless of his intentions, the boxing world unquestionably took notice. The previously undefeated Page Jnr, also in less than two rounds, and Spain’s former WBA champion Campillo, in less than four, similarly followed; France’s Doudou Ngumbu is next on June 12 and can provide another sign of Beterbiev’s rapid progress if a victory can surpass the unanimous decision won by Andrzej Fonfara, against Ngumbu in November, over 10 rounds.

Given the expectation that Beterbiev’s development will continue – and the punishment that is becoming routine for his opponents may yet take worthwhile learning fights out of his 73-inch reach – the 30 year old’s matchmaking may soon be accelerated further beyond its present fast-track pace, specifically to the third fight of a trilogy with Kovalev, or to Stevenson.

“[Stevenson’s] a good boxer, he deserves some respect,” said Beterbiev, like many from Dagestan a devout Muslim, who also told BN he was praying when it appeared he was talking to himself immediately after the stoppage of Campillo.

“I’m just going to keep doing what I’m good at. For me, it’s not personal. Either it’s gonna be Stevenson, or Kovalev. I’m not chasing after anyone, I’m chasing after the belts. I’ll deserve my title shot, whoever it is I don’t care. It’s not for me to judge, I haven’t even seen [Stevenson’s] last fight.

“I haven’t really followed Kovalev’s career. The last fight, with [Jean] Pascal, I was there, and he’s good, he’s improved, he’s winning. By his winning record, and his belts, you can say that he’s improved [since we fought as amateurs].

“I think Kovalev’s a good fighter. Me and him have a history. I don’t want to say now, or tomorrow, or this year, or next year, but we’re definitely going to meet each other in the ring. Just a matter of time.

“I’m pretty sure definitely, one day, we’ll meet each other.”

 

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