If Beterbiev beats Bivol and Benavidez, will he be recognized as ATG?

Many still can't get their heads around the fact that a lot of these great amateurs from former Soviet states had 300 + amateur fights and didn't turn pro in their teens or very early 20s like many North America fighters and fighters from other parts of the world do

They turned pro when they were a couple of months away from turning 26, 27, or pushing 30. That's a huge chunk of your career and your prime years and they're typically gym rats who train all year round and 300 + amateur fights fighting at the elite level for a huge part of their careers is too much IMO, especially when you've been training since you're a young child or a very young one.

And they also don't have the enormous luxury of being able to fight out of their homelands. They have to uproot and leave their countries and travel to North America or other places to try and forge careers for themselves where they have to adapt to completely different cultures and learn new language and hope a major promoter will sign them.

Kovalev was 28 when he turned pro and after uprooting and leaving his homeland and heading to the US he had to fight for free for the first three years and 18 fights of his career because no major promoter would sign him. That's almost half of his career total fights.

Beterbiev was 28.5 y/o when he turned pro and he obviously had to uproot from Russia and move to North America to forge a career for himself.

Even worse, his career has been blighted with a lot of inactivity, either due to injury or legal problems with his promoter.

He's only had 19 fights in over a decade long career and 9 of them were within his first two years as a pro

Loma was a couple of months shy of turning 26 when he turned pro and Usyk a couple of months from turning 27.

Korobov a couple from turning 26 and like all of the aforementioned with extremely extensive amateur careers he left a lot of his best and prime years in the amateurs

Like them, he also started to become very injury-prone in his early-mid thirties, so much so he lost his last two fights due to his body falling apart on him, suffering two different injuries which prevented him from continuing, the first of which just seconds into round 2, the later after just 4 rounds

GGG turned pro a little earlier at 24 but he had to uproot and leave Kazakhstan and head to Germany to forge a career for himself, learn German and adapt to that culture, and then after having major problems with his promoter which stalled his career and progress he had to uproot and head over to the US and learn English and adapt to another completely alien culture.

Sure some of them get fast tracked but then you have these clowns who say but they only had 20 fights doe or some are only in their first, second or third division even though the turned pro much later than many of their contemporaries and had they turned pro at the same age as them they would've turned pro at a much lighter weight class and they are the anti-thesis of weight bullies

Take Loma for example he's only had 20 fights but look at how many of them were world title fights and how many champions he's fought

# of world champions fought

Loma = 12 in 20 fights
Clenelo = 21 or 22 in 64 fights (I think it's that many)
Inoue = 10 in 25 fights
Twink = 9 in 29 fights << pure PBC smoke & mirrors
Crawford = 10 in 40 fights
Spence = 8 in 29 fights
Usyk = 6 or 7 if you count the WBA regular in 20 fights
Josh Taylor = 6 in 20 fights
Bivol = 4 in 21 fights
Jermello = 5 in 38 fights


Some more

GGG = 7 in 45 fights
Beterbiev = 4 in 19 fights
Rougarou = 4 in 30 fights
Jermallo = 3 in 32 fights
Fury = 3 in 35 fights
Wilder = 3 in 46 fights
Cordina = 2 in 17 fights
Shakur = 2 in 21 fights
Boo Boo = 1 in 33 fights

# of world title fights

Loma = 16 of 20 fights all on the road
Clenelo = 23 of 64 fights most in Vegas
Inoue = 20 in 25 fights 3 on the road
Crawford = 19 in 40 fights 1 on the road
Bivol = 10 in 21 fights 9 on the road
Usyk = 10 in 21 fights all on the road, sans Poland
Jermello = 10 in 38 fights none on the road
Spence = 8 in 29 fights 1 on the road
Taylor = 7 in 20 fights 1 on the road
Beterbiev = 8 in 19 fights most on the road
Twink = 12 in 29 fights all bar one at home and most WBA regular title fights



To add some perspective

Andre Ward fought 6 world champions and had 8 world title fights in 32 fights

It really does put things into perspective when you look at it like that. Most world champions do not fight 10 world title fights or fight near 10 world champions even though they have longer or much longer careers than 20 fights

Floyd fought a ton of world title fights and beat a ton of world champions but even then the total number of title fights he fought in 50 fights is 26 and he turned pro young at 19

If Beterbiev and his fellow great amateur peers from former Soviet states had just turned pro just one Olympic cycle earlier, let alone in their teens, they would've achieved way more than they have and for many of them everything they have achieved has been achieved fighting on the road or in their opponent's backyards sans any home refs or judges ever working their fights which is obviously a massive advantage to have because it can and often does transform Ls into Ws.