Question for experts : Is Beterbiev really that good?

In addition to his pro career, becoming the three-belt unified king in just 18 fights, and KO 100% which includes being the only man to legitimately stop his last 8 opponents sans one who was subsequently stopped up at CW

Joe Smith's earlier career inside schedule loss was due to suffering a badly broken jaw

And Marcus Browne's one was a TD on cuts

He also, among many others, holds wins over the likes these top pros in the ams


Usyk
Kovalev
Dorticos
Gvozdyk
Michael Hunter
Mchunu
Sillakh



Oleksandr Usyk - Olympic gold medalist, world amateur gold & bronze medalist, European gold & bronze medalist. Usyk beat Beterbiev in the 2011 world amateur championships and the 2012 by 4 pts on each occasion but Beterbiev also holds a victory over him and there are some out there that feel Artur was a bit hard done by in one of those loses.

Egor Mekhontsev - 2 x World amateur championships gold medalist, Olympic gold medalist, 2 x European gold medalist

Evgeny Makarenko - 2 x World amateur championships gold medalist, 2 x European gold medalist + 1 x bronze

Abbos Atoev - 2 x World amateur championships gold medalist, Olympic bronze medalist

Vasiliy Levit - 2016 Olympic silver medalist but clearly should've got gold

Yerdos Dzhanabergenov - World amateur championships gold medalist

Oleksandr Gvozdyk - Olympic bronze medalist but should be at least silver as he was robbed in the semi-final

Kenny Egan - Olympic silver medalist, 2 x European bronze medalist

Elshod Rasulov - World amateur championships silver medalist 2 x bronze

Ismail Sillakh - World amateur championships silver medalist, European silver medalist (302-16)

Tervel Pulev - Olympic bronze medalist, 2 x European silver medalist + 1 x bronze

Abdelkader Bouhenia - world amateur championships bronze medalist, European silver medalist

Artak Malumyan - World amateur championships bronze medalist

Nikita Ivanov - European gold medalist

Jose Larduet - World amateur championships bronze medalist

Artur Khachatryan - European bronze medalist

Javid Taghiyev - European bronze medalist

Imre Szello - European bronze medalist

Darren O'Neil - European silver medalist

Sergey Kovalev (very close win on pts)

Yunier Dorticos - WBA CW champion (questionable stoppage though)

Thabiso Mchunu

Beterbiev stopped quite a few of those guys too.

Beterbiev is a world amateur championships gold & silver medalist and a 2 x European gold medalist. He was robbed against the home representative in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. His opponent (Zhang) was allowed to get away with a ridiculous amount of holding and spoiling. Zhang subsequently went on to win the gold, and not without a little more good luck coming his way from the judges. Beterbiev had already beaten the guy Zhang fought in the final, Ireland's Kenny Egan who was robbed of the gold against Zhang. Beterbiev stopped Egan in 2 rounds on the OS rule in the European championships in 2006.

He'd also stopped the guy Zhang fought in the quarter finals (Abdelhafid Benchebla) in the 4th round of the semi-final of the Feliks Stamm Tournament earlier in the same year as those Olympics too and he also beat him again on points the following year as well.

So he should really have gone on to win gold in Beijing, IMO.

He was also robbed in the World amateur championships final against Atoev too, IMO.

So he lost twice in the Olympics to the eventual gold medalist, and twice in the World amateur championships to the eventual gold medalist. Two of those loses were robberies IMO and the other two against Usyk, one of which some felt he deserved, were close and fiercely contested. Usyk said Beterbiev was probably his toughest opponent he fought in the amateurs and that he hit very hard indeed.

Then you have to factor in he turns 38 in a couple of weeks and is no longer in his prime, didn't turn pro until he 5 months after his 28th birthday, and his pro career has been blighted with inactivity

Just 18 fights in 9.5 year career
9 since 2016

With four nearly 1.5 year, 1 year, and 2 near year long spells of inactivity during that 9.5 year career of his

17 months
12 months
11 months
11 months

If he turned pro in his teens or early 20s he would have achieved a ton more and he absolutely would've been, at the very least but very likely even more so, destructive and formidable wrecking machine he has been since he turned over very late