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Less than two months remain until one of the most high-profile confrontations in the history of domestic boxing: June 1 is already in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Russian boxers Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol will fight for the title of absolute world light heavyweight champion.
Sport correspondent talks about little-known facts from the lives of our athletes. We start with 39-year-old Beterbiev, world champion according to the World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Organization (WBO) and International Boxing Federation (IBF).
Left without a father at 16
The boxer does not hide: at first his father was against his son immersing himself in the world of sports and advocated education. However, bronze at the Junior World Championships forced the head of the family to change his anger to mercy… And feel true pride in his son!
It is a pity that Beterbiev Sr. did not witness the adult successes of his son. While working as a minibus driver, the athlete's father got into a terrible accident — doctors tried to save the victim, but death that day turned out to be worse.
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“A man came and called his father’s name: “Does someone like that live here?” He's in the hospital, he had an accident.» We immediately rushed there. My father fought for his life until half past seven in the evening. His leg was amputated. Died from loss of blood. I remember I carried this leg, wrapped in cellophane, into the car to take it home. The father was still alive at that moment. They operated on him and tried to save him. Amputation didn't help.» (SE)
Twenty fights at the professional level — twenty victories by knockouts. An impeccable record, for which Beterbiev went through hundreds of sparring sessions. And many were not happy about this experience of interacting with the champion: as the athlete’s coach John Scully told ESPN, there were guys in the gym who “literally counted the days until they returned home.” Sparring partners needed money, but for this they had to “absorb this power.”
Athletes complained to the coach that Beterbiev made them “suffocate in the ring.” Arthur “seemed to be sucking all the air out of the room,” and the others had to stay there and box him without oxygen.
Fought with Alexander three times (!) Mustache
…but as amateurs. The undefeated first met in 2007 at a friendly team meeting between Russia and Ukraine in Kaliningrad — Arthur won (12:10). But then the domestic athlete had two defeats by decision. Arthur himself admitted that in the lost quarterfinals at the 2011 World Championships in Baku and at the 2012 Olympics in London (victory for Usik), he was condemned: in both meetings, Beterbiev “punched” Usik’s body, but the same referee, instead of a knockdown, recorded prohibited stabs in the back.
And the promoters did not allow the Russian to sort out the relationship with the Ukrainian already in professional boxing.
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“If you had told me at that time that Usyk would go down in history as one of the greatest, I would not have believed it. But from a purely sporting point of view, there are boxers that I like. He has achieved great results in sports, this should be respected. I do not want to diminish his merits with any words. I worked and I achieved it.”
Conflict with Sergei Kovalev
As with Usik, the paths of Beterbiev and his eminent compatriot crossed in the amateurs, at the 2007 Russian Championship, which was victorious for Arthur. In Yakutsk, he met Kovalev in the semi-finals and, in a difficult fight, won by split decision. Beterbiev tried to fight Sergey in the pros for a long time and even threatened to win a second time. “Krusher,” in turn, did not admit defeat at the national championship and spoke harshly about sparring with the current holder of the belts (“Beater’s head flew off all the way to his butt”).
An excellent seed for a rematch! Which, unfortunately, we never saw.
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"When Sergei was a champion, he allowed himself to speak unflatteringly. He was probably in a good mood, he couldn’t restrain himself. We understand that boxers do this anyway, and we must make allowances for this. So I made a slight discount. Of course, I remember all this, I have not forgotten it. But my first priority is the sports component. When he had the championship belt, I was really interested in him. It's all put together here. And now he doesn’t have a title, and I don’t see the point in fighting him.”
Large father
Despite the fact that the boxer often comes to Russia (Beterbiev, an honorary citizen of the city of Grozny, warmly communicates with the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov), his family and mother live in Montreal, Canada.
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“For some this is a dream and a chance in a million, but I really didn’t want to leave. Either my father’s death had such an impact on me, or something else… But the thought that I had to leave home, leave my mother, horrified me. And I was ready to refuse, which, of course, would have put an end to my career. My mother always supported me, she knew how important boxing was for me, that it could become my life, and she persuaded me to go.”
The athlete does not like to talk about his personal life , and social networks are mostly dedicated to boxing and sports-related events. However, it is known that Beterbiev is married and has two sons (Akhmat and Akrami) and two daughters (Amira and Sofia). The children go to a Russian school, where their main language is French, with English being the second. sports career. He considers himself a Russian, and, most likely, after leaving sports he will return to his homeland.