Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2019-10-18, good fight between Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Artur Beterbiev: it gets three stars.Both undefeated and both former Olympian, the current Wbc light-Hw champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk entered this fight with a perfect boxing record of 17-0-0 (14 KOs=82%) and he is ranked as the No.2 light heavyweight in the world (currently the #1 in this division is Sergey Kovalev) while his opponent, the current Ibf light-Hw champion Artur Beterbiev, has an official record of 14-0-0 (14 KOs=100%) and he entered as the No.11 in the same weight class. In their last three fights Gvozdyk has won over Mehdi Amar (Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs Mehdi Amar), Adonis Stevenson (Adonis Stevenson vs Oleksandr Gvozdyk) and Doudou Ngumbu (Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs Doudou Ngumbu) while Beterbiev has beat Enrico Koelling (Artur Beterbiev vs Enrico Koelling), Callum Johnson (Artur Beterbiev vs Callum Johnson) and Radivoje Kalajdzic (Artur Beterbiev vs Radivoje Kalajdzic). Gvozdyk vs Beterbiev is valid for the WBC and IBF World light heavyweight titles. Watch the video and rate this fight!
Date: 2019-10-18
Where: Liacouras Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Division: light heavyweight (175 lbs, 79.4 kg)
Title: WBC and IBF World light heavyweight titles
Beterbiev’s next fight: Artur Beterbiev vs Adam Deines
Gvozdyk vs Beterbiev fight video:
(Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wreyjdJEO4U
Official video
One of the best LHW fights in recent years. Beterbiev is one of the hardest punchers in the division with the skills to match. He could’ve easily unified the division few years ago had it not been for all these guys running from him the whole time.
I enjoyed Teddy Atlas’s motivational words to Gvozdyk between rounds.
One of the best matches of this year. Great performance by Beterbiev. To knock out a champion like Gvozdyk, it mean that you are really something big !
Oleksandr is technically better than Beterbiev who is a real “beast”. Based on this fight what Beterbiev should do is to acquired better boxing skills to improve his performance and overcome a future technically and more skilled boxer that could put him in troubles again.
It’s obvious that technical boxers could give Beterbiev troubles, but there’s probably no higher-skilled boxer than Gvozdyk in the division – maybe Bivol is up there as well. Beterbiev might look wild at times, but as evidenced by his punch selections and ring generalship, is far from a truly “wild” fighter. Sure, Gvozdyk was landing the slicker combinations and showed better lateral movement, but I thought Beterbiev did a great job in countering those with body shots and constant pressure – the fight was pretty even until the 9th round imo.
It should also be noted that Beterbiev has a pretty decorated amateur pedigree, as is common with Eastern Bloc elites that transition into the pro scene. He is also 34. Not sure how much more he can add to his game at this point in his career.
logicalfellac: Take my comment as one coming from an old fashioned guy that prefers technicality (beauty) in lieu of power (beast). I fully agree with you that age is a big factor for Beterbiev and most likely it is too late for improving his boxing skills and may not be necessary at this stage of his career. However, It would be very nice for him to go for retirement as an undefeated boxer but this is presently at risk since he rely too much on his punching power.
Anyhow, as you said, he was able to manage the second part of this fight with a better body punch offensive getting a victory which was in serious question during the first part.