Artur Beterbiev boxer

Artur Asilbekovich Beterbiev (Russian: Артур Асильбекович Бетербиев; born 21 January 1985) is a Russian professional boxer. He is a unified light-heavyweight champion, having held the IBF title since 2017 and the WBC title since 2019. As of November 2021 he is recognized as the best active light-heavyweight by The Ring, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and ESPN and second by BoxRec.As an amateur, Beterbiev won a silver medal at the 2007 World Championships, gold at the 2009 World Championships, as well as gold at the 2006 and 2010 European Championships, all in the light-heavyweight division. He also reached the quarter-finals of the heavyweight bracket at the 2012 Olympics.Beterbiev is particularly known for his exceptional punching power, having won all of his professional fights by knockout or stoppage.Beterbiev competed as a light-heavyweight and heavyweight in his amateur career. He won the 2006 European Amateur Boxing Championships beating Kenneth Egan and Ismail Sillakh among others. He beat Egor Mekhontsev but lost to two-time world champion Evgeny Makarenko in 2006.clarification needed In 2007 he beat future unified light-heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in the semi-finals, and eventually beat Evgeny Makarenko in finals to qualify for the World Championships. In the finals of the World Championships he faced the little-known Abbos Atoev but lost in an upset.At the 2008 Olympics he beat Kennedy Katende 15:3, then at the round of 16 he fell controversially to local boxer Zhang Xiaoping who went on to win the gold medal. At the 2009 World Championships, he beat young Cuban Jose Larduet and Uzbek Elshod Rasulov to claim the light heavyweight title.