Damn, this was a great fight. The cream of the crop facing each other in an epic clash of styles. Anyone re-watch this gem as often as me? Haha.
I've rewatched it once. Not an absolute classic (there are many I'll be far likelier to revisit in years to come), but a really good fight. I wish top guys in all the divisions were so willing to get together without all the ceremony and years of stagnating and waiting around.
That was hard to watch for a certain segment of this forum. They went from celebrating and gloating about Gvodzyk's win over an over the hill Stevenson, to being put on suicide watch as Beterbiev broke the Ukranian down and made him his *****.
it was definitely a very good fight to watch, but it's true greatness lies in how Beterbiev won and watching it progressively play out. It's a shame Beterbiev started so late as a pro, I have no doubt he would have gone down as a HOF'er and possibly ATG. Gvozdyk is an exceptional fighter when he is engaged. He was engaged all the way here, and Beterbiev just blitzed him regardless. Beterbiev is a very special fighter indeed. One seldom discussed point from this fight was Gvozdyk's chin. @Serge is the only poster I have seen comment on it a few times from this fight. I always thought it was much better than people thought, but holy **** man, he took so many missiles off his dome it was painful to watch. I don't really think his chin had anything to do with any of his knockdowns, I think that was exhaustion and his spirit giving up long before his chin did. In the Olympics, Michael Hunter fought Beterbiev in the first fight for both guys. I think Beterbiev "won" on a countback. It looked like a pretty blatant robbery to me. Ya it's the amateurs and pro ranks are pro ranks, but class is class and he showed it against an exceptional fighter.
I wish he'd turned pro after the 2008 Olympics, ditto for Loma and Usyk, instead of after the London Olympics in 2012 and had he done so I have no doubt he would achieved way more than he'll end up doing. He's only fought a maximum of twice a year since 2015 2 x in 2015 2 x in 2016 1 x in 2017 1 x in 2018 2 x in 2019 CST has as well. But yeah, Beterbiev cracked him with plenty of savagely heavy bombs, bombs from a puncher with a KO 100% which would've got most LHWs out of there a lot sooner than Gvozdyk was. And those right hands to the body from Beterbiev literally made me wince. They were some of the heaviest body punches I've ever seen from a LHW. Artur is just a horrible fighter to fight. Stupidly heavy hands, relentless pressure, much more intelligent, crafty and skilled than given credit for, and on top of that he has an amazing engine and he can maintain that pressure and pace for 12 rounds. This content is protected I haven't watched it in a while but from what I recall I had Artur edging it. Hunter was holding and spoiling a lot in the last round IIRC and I got the impression he was feeling the weight of Artur shots and pressure which says a lot about how strong and powerful Artur is given how Hunter campaigned up at SHW for many years and Artur 's best weight was down at LHW and he was giving away a lot of weight to his opponents up at HW. But I'd seen Hunter box in the ams a number of times and I knew he was a tough SOB because none of the numerous SHW behemoths he fought who were all naturally bigger and heavier than him were able to stop him and he beat a number of them too.
