If Beterbiev were to retire immediately; how ATG LHW would rank?

That’s fair and a great point! (How often do we look at past fighter records without any context besides the result? More than any of us care to admit I’m sure.)

BUT - thats not necessarily the case here and now..

Interesting on your feelings on the bout.

 

These lists are meaningless. He's the best of his era. That's all that matters.

 

Why hasn't he surpassed them?

He unified all 4 belts

Had KOd everyone bar 1 person

2 x Olympian

European champion

World amateur champion

Undefeated

Undisputed

9x successful belt defences

Pretty solid resume and great credentials

His record is full of QUALITY wins one after the other. It's not padded and stretched out

 

1. Because he doesn't have the quality of names like the other boxers I mentioned did.
2. Irrelevant, 4 belt era started in the mid 00's, boxing is a sport that has almost 2 centuries of history.
3, 4, 5, 6... so what?
6. He has like 20 fights...
7. Isn't that the same thing as holding all 4 belts?
8. So?
9. Average resume and credentials, still wouldn't put him in the top 10 ATG LHW's. Tavoris Cloud, Gabriel Campillo, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Joe Smith Jr, Callum Smith & Dmitry Bivol, solid resume.... but you're dealing with men who defeated such guys as Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles, Gene Tunney, etc in the bottom half of the top 10.

 

11-20

 

I never said Beterbiev is the GOAT at LHW.

By the same token, you have failed to make a case for any of the guys above being ahead of Beterbiev.
Sure it makes you sound smart that you can list older fighters but people always tend to view older fighters with rose tinted glasses.

It's like when people say Fangio could have been an ATG had he competed even in today's F1 era

 

I mean, I'm not really sure what point you're trying to make here. You want me to post a whole essay on why Archie Moore, Bob Foster, Michael Spinks, Ezzard Charles, Gene Tunney, Billy Conn, Tommy Loughran, Tommy Gibbons, Jimmy Bivins and Harold Johnson are all greater than Beterbiev? It's simply due to resume, look at who these guys beat and when they beat them, some of these guys like Charles and Gene Tunney are even in the consideration of GOAT status. Beterbiev is the greatest LHW of his generation, that's all well and fine, nobody is taking that away from him. The problem is LHW is stacked with great fighters from the past and Beterbiev hasn't really done enough to crack the top 10, especially if retiring today.


Let's compare him to Dariusz Michalczewski who isn't a top 10 LHW either.

Beterbiev-
9-0 in world title fights
6-0 against former world champions
Lineal/Undisputed Champion
102-13 Amateur record, European and World Champion

Michalczeski-
23-2 in world title fights
6-2 against former world champions
Lineal Champion
133-15-2 (83 KO's) amateur record, European champion

 

I'm not even saying Beterbiev is the GOAT at LHW. But he is the greatest IMO of his generation, on that we both agree.

However, H2H I think he obliterates through most of the guys you rate above him. It's just my opinion.

 

Modern fighters also get overrated Beterbiev's best wins are Gvodyzk who made 1 title defence and a highly controversial win over Bivol.

There's people rating him as top 5 when fighters like Spinks, Charles, Tunney, Conn, Moore, blow his resume out of the water.

I would say it's also debatable he's the best of his generation when alot of people thought he lost to Bivol. The rivalry between them has not been settled in my mind there needs to be a rematch.

 

Agree on the rematch. It must happen before Father Time truly takes over for Beterbiev

 

younger fans don't realise how soft modern athletes in every sport have become.

 

The tricky thing about Beterbiev is he has the shortest career of any LHW champ but he started fighting top guys at 5-0 so hes actually up there in terms of title fights and quality wins. So its really hard to rank a career like that.

At this point has not cleaned out the division and his career is short enough where winning a few more fights would help his legacy a lot. At 21-0 he looks like hes undefeated and stopped everyone cause his career was short. But if he got to 25-0 and stopped Benavidez, Buatsi, Bivol again and Canelo now hes got 10 lineal defenses. A few more wins changes it to "He was a dominant champ with a short career" to "he beat everyone he could have fought". And if Benavidez or Buatsi go on to be great champions in the next 10 years they make Beterbiev look even better something none of his current wins are going to do.

But if he did retire today I am confident Beterbievs LHW legacy today is far greater than Usyks HW one. Beterbiev being undefeated with almost all stoppages means he's going to rank high H2H regardless. The ? is the legacy. And losing his 100% means he lost a meaningful superlative.

Bivol is the closest of the top 175ers to Beterbiev in age. He should save the Bivol rematch for the end. Its conceivable Bivol could age worse than Beterbiev. With everyone else hes got to fight them now. Same goes for Canelo who isn't really a threat IMO but a nice name to have on the resume.

 

I think he's at least in the top 3 for testosterone and hgh levels at 40 years old, maybe no.1.
For pure roids, plenty of older fighters would beat him though, like our old friend Roy.

 

In the top 20. I guess.