Jirov is retired, but if he were still fighting, even at his peak, he would get knocked out by Beterbiev....................
Interesting matchup. Tough to call for me, Id think Jirov would be able to get a Ud on his best day. Jirov's style would gibe Beterbiev problems.
Beterbiev looks good but He's not proven against anyone of the same caliber of Jirov nor been past 7 rounds. We dont know if Beiv's will carry his punch up in weight or how well he can take punches from a top guy who fights him back. What we do know is Jirov could go 12 hard rounds, could take punches from bigger men and was a hellacious body puncher and proven against better comp. Based on this I think its only reasonably to favor Jirov. aOf course this is based on the Beiv's who is fighting now. A couple years down the road or a couple of stiff challenges and this could very well swing to the other direction.
As to the OP.....Jirovs claim to fame are losses to Me so and moorer at HW and to Toney in a CW fight in which both fighters were well in excess of 220 on the night. Personally....I think Beterbiev...fighting at 200 comes in light...maybe 205...210... & rips the no defense having Jirov to peices
How do you think Jirove had no defense? He moved his head and slipped punches well, moved side to side and parried punches. Against Toney he gotten broken down by a GREAT counter puncher. In his other 2 losses he was bullied by much bigger fighters and still had adequate defense. We have no idea how going up in weight would affect Beiv's, but I can say with certainty he was not on any of those 3 levels who beat Jirov at this time. Maybe in the future, but certainly not now.
When Jirov fought at CW the limit was 190lb up until 2004. He sometimes come in around 200 lbs for a few non title fights but always looked a little soft and sluggish when he did.
