Teenage Beterbiev knocks out dude with a left hook

Thanks. But the problem is the same people who believe these Soviet brothers would've lost with less amateur fights under their belts don't believe they were capable of replicating the success of these elite or great North Americans who turned pro much younger than they did and you won't ever hear a peep about how pivotal that stacked deck of home advantage for their entire careers (when facing foreigners especially) and home refs and judges were to their success, maintaining it, their unbeaten records and creating the illusion of invincibility for those other fighters and their countrymen

 

It is the case. There was an opportunity for the Kovalev fight to be made but Team Beterbiev turned it down at the time for whatever reason which I have no interest in getting into.

But even if it was the worst case scenario and it was a duck, to be fair, Beterbiev was only 9-0 at the time and Kovalev was like 27-0, the three-belt unified champion, and I think he was ranked like P4P #3 at the time with seven world title fights experience under his belt and Beterbiev had fought no one other than Cloud and a washed Campillo so it was a super risky fight for them to take then

Had Ward not decided to retire when the division was on fire at 32 or 33 y/o the fight vs Beterbiev could easily have been made but he did. He never would've fought Beterbiev. He shamelessly ducked Adonis for goodness sake.

Beterbiev did call out Adonis but they were both under the same promoter and one whom Beterbiev tried to break free from which lead to him being inactive for like at least a year IIRC as they ended up battling it out in court.

Again, I'm not interested in going through all this stuff. My point is a very simple one: Had Beterbiev turned pro one Olympic cycle earlier or much younger than he did which was freaking 28.5 y/o he would've achieved much more than he has.

 

Yes, and they still would've done so had they turned pro earlier only with many more of their prime healthy years to accomplish more in the pros. Beterbiev is 40 y/o and his career has been plagued with injuries and a lot of inactivity due to injury. Usyk is 38 y/o and he has been past his prime for years and the fact he has managed to become undisputed at HW, between the age of four months shy of turning 35 when winning his first HW belts and a couple of months shy of turning 38 when winning the 4th one, is a testament to his greatness but a younger prime Usyk would've done even better.

Same goes for Beterbiev, who again, is 40 y/o

 

Yeah, for whatever reason it was, and as said I don't want to get into it because I'm having a lot of trouble with my eyes and I can't research it all, the fight didn't get made back then. But even if it was the absolute worse case scenario and it was a straight duck Beterbiev had only had 9 fights at the time and Kovalev was way further along in his career at the time and much more experienced.

Beterbiev might well have beaten Kovalev then but the chances of him losing to him at that point were higher too so it's understandable. Kovalev was a monster back then and, as said, at a much more advanced stage of his career.

 

Cool, yeah it has the makings of a quality and fun fight

I think Stan is up against it. Super Boots is really good, Stan has only fought once since the Butaev fight which was three years ago, and what are the chances of him getting a fair shake from the judges if it goes to the cards?