Title. Beterbiev picked up each title one by one, unifiying the light heavyweight division over 7 years, first winning the IBF in 2017. Then unifying the WBC with a brutal signature win over Oleksandr Gvozdyk in 2019 in what was viewed as a 50/50 type of fight. Then absolutely destroying Joe Smith Jr in 2 rounds in 2022 to unify the WBO, in a better win over Smith than Bivol, in which Bivol was badly rocked by Smith. Then two defences of his 3 belts against tough, game Brits, Yarde and Callum Smith, Before finally picking up the WBA (and IBO and Ring) last night, aged 39, nearly shot, inactive with ring rust, coming off a major surgery against prime Dmitry Bivol. Whereas Bivol in a similar timespan won a paper interim WBA title in 2016, eventually being elevated to primary champion, and was content to sit on the belt for 8 years, defending it against mostly overmatched opposition, while Beterbiev cleaned up the division. It took 6 years for Bivol since he first won the belt to pick up his signature wins, in 2022 against Zurdo Ramirez (solid win) and Canelo (small past-prime middleweight). Utimately it doesn't even matter if you think Bivol beat Beterbiev last night. Beterbiev's legacy was already better, and the fact that a shot near-40 year old was even competitive with prime Bivol speaks volumes.
All the disrespect that he had to handle. Why he was walking first, despite the fact that he achived more in the division, holding 3 belts and dominating everyone with KO wins. His resume is great for LHW division. Going in the UK to fight outside of the comfort zone. Why is he not considered as a road warrior ? Everyone was saying that Usyk won the belts outside of his home, well Beterbiev done the same thing. Beating Gvodzyk in chicago when there was 99% fans against him, doing same with Joe smith in NY. I think some of the fans were expecting more from Beterbiev yesterday, maybe a TKO, that's why some of them are saying silly things.
I've got it like this: Beterbiev Bivol Kovalev Gvozdyk Stevenson Reason i have Bivol over Kovalev is the loss to the two Alvarez's... & Fuq that cheating hunt Ward i aint including him
Why is Gvozdyk there and how the hell is he higher than Bivol? Dude only had one good win, against ancient Stevenson, and I thought he was losing that fight when the knockout came.
True. I remember one of the DAZN commentators last night (can't remember who) saying that Bivol may have an advantage being a road warrior because Beterbiev was "mainly based in Canada", which was absolutely ridiculous, considering his last 6 fights were in Russia - Canada - US - UK - Canada - Saudi. The commentary was just clueless.
