Artur Beterbiev, the Russian looking to extend his devastating knockout streak against two rivals: Joe Smith and the New York crowd

Don’t get up to go to the bathroom or look for a drink in the kitchen, don’t get lost looking at the phone, don’t play with the dog or cat, blink the bare minimum. The suggestions are valid for the entire duration of the fight that this Saturday (ESPN 2 will air from 10 pm) will have as protagonist Artur Beterbyev and that it will certainly be less than the 12 agreed rounds. The Russian will face the American Joe Smith at the Hulu Theater in New York’s Madison Square Garden, in a competition in which three light heavyweight division belts will be up for grabs.

Seventeen opponents have crossed gloves with the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation champion since his professional debut in June 2013, 10 months after his second Olympic participation (he competed in Beijing 2008 and London 2012). They were all defeated before the limit. None of the other 56 acting world champions recognized by any of the four major bodies (including regular, interim, franchise and super champions) have the perfect knockout percentage that Beterbiev boasts.

The 37-year-old Russian, who has lived in Montreal (Canada) since 2013, does not have a withered hand, but the combination of power and continuity has allowed him to categorically beat all his opponents since he began the path of consecration. In that path, he eliminated former world champions Tavoris Cloud and Gabriel Campillo, Ezequiel Maderna from La Plata and another man who lives in the south of Greater Buenos Aires, the Paraguayan Isidro Ranoni Prieto. None of them lasted beyond the fourth round..

In his 12th professional outing, Beterbiev won the IBF title, vacated by Andre Ward, against Enrico Koelling in November 2017. The German held out until round 12, but two knockdowns in that round led to referee Lou Moret to stop. Actions when there were only 26 seconds to go to the final bell. Neither before nor after was anyone as close as the Teuto to completing the agreed distance ahead of him.

This was followed by five more knockouts, including the one that allowed him to add the 175-pound WBC belt: against the Ukrainian Oleksandr Gvozdyk at round 10 in October 2019 in Philadelphia. The latest was in December of last year, in one of the most complicated tests of his career, as he had to go through five rounds with a chilling forehead injury (the product of an accidental head clash) before forcing New Yorker Marcus Browne waving the white flag in the ninth episode.

When Saúl Canelo Álvarez decided earlier this year to unify the four 175-pound titles and thus repeat the result he had already achieved in the super middleweight division, the Russian, with two belts in his possession, seemed called to be one of its rivals. . But the defeat of the Mexican against another Russian, Dmitry Bivol, changed plans in May. These days Beterbiev seems more interested in a duel with his compatriot than in facing the red from Guadalajara. “I would rather fight with a champion who has the belt and not a rival chosen by name or money,” he stressed this week in an interview published in The Ring magazine.

The fight with Smith

Before then he will have to overcome the obstacle that will represent Smith, born 32 years ago in Long Island (New York), holder of the World Boxing Organization title and worker: for much of his professional career he divided his time between boxing and work as a construction worker, and still collaborates with his father in a family business dedicated to tree pruning.

Despite being five years younger than his rival, Smith has a longer career (he debuted in 2009) and with more lines: he starred in 33 fights, of which 28 won (22 on the fast track) and 3 lost. He wasn’t particularly bright, especially in his first decade. In that period his most important results were the victories against the Polish Andrzej Fonfara and the knockout against the already veteran Bernard Hopkins, a few days before the Executioner he turned 52 (he was the only one to beat him before the limit).

A defeat to Dmitry Bivol for the World Boxing Association title in March 2019 put him at a crossroads. “I knew that if I didn’t improve in my next fight, I wasn’t going anywhere. He didn’t want to go back to work every day as a worker. This motivated me to train every day because this is my life. That’s how I got here, “he said this week.

Since then, he has outclassed fellow countryman Jesse Hart, knocked out former Colombian world champion Eleider Álvarez, and in April 2021 took advantage of a vacant WBO light heavyweight title and took the belt by defeating Russian Maxim Vlasov by decision at majority in Tulsa. He defended him in January of this year by eliminating Steve Geffrard and this Saturday he will put him on the line for the second time.

And he trusts his plan to keep the three belts. “Sometimes it stays open. This will give me the opportunity to land my power shots. I’m the best boxer in the division and I’m ready to go blow for blow with this guy. I think it’s going to be my night, “he was excited on the eve of a fight where he’ll be more local than ever.

Russophobia in New York

So Smith will be at Madison Square Garden, where he has never fought professionally, as a visitor will be Beterbievdespite having carried out 16 of his 17 rent fights in North American territory (11 in Canada and 5 in the United States) and was only able to appear once in his country: on March 20, 2021, when he was eliminated in the tenth round his compatriot (although nationalized German) Adam Deines at the Khodynka Arena in Moscow.

These days of russophobia are not easy for athletes from that country of any discipline and in almost every corner of the planet. Boxing is no exception. On February 26, two days after the start of military operations on Ukrainian soil, the four governing bodies announced that they would not sanction world or regional title fights on Russian soil.

The WBA has gone further: it has excluded all Russians from its rankings and left their seats vacant (so that no boxer of that nationality can aspire to the crown), while respecting Bivol’s supermedium champion status, the he is the only Russian monarch recognized by that body and one of two of the 57 men who hold a planetary title.

The other is Beterbiev, to whom russophobia was no stranger in recent months. To such an extent that promoter Bob Arum, in an attempt to protect his boxer’s image, tried to erase history. “He is a legal resident of Canada, has lived there for many years and has a Canadian passport. There comes a time when he becomes part of another country and not the one you were born in. Beterbiev is Canadian and has nothing to do with RussiaHe assured in March, before the fight with Smith was confirmed.

Too bad Arum weighs and even if the witch hunters who have so much work these days are afraid, Beterbiev is Russian and recognizes himself as such: was born in Khasavyurt, in the Republic of Dagestan (one of the 22 that make up the Russian Federation), although most of his family, Muslim and of Chechen origin, reside in Grozny.

But it’s not just a geographic issue. The world champion proudly remembers his childhood, adolescence and early adulthood in his country (he studied and graduated from the Moscow Reserve Olympic School and the Russian State University of Physical Culture and Sport); He has a close relationship with Ramzán Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, whom he calls “my elder brother”; he is an honorary citizen of Grozny and writes almost all posts on his Instagram account in Russian.

None of this makes him an apologist for the war between Russia and Ukraine. “I think what’s going on is not good, but I can’t change something like that,” he complained this week in The Ring interview. He added: “I’m preparing for a match, so I don’t watch TV or YouTube. It is difficult to focus on what is happening in the world and be ready to fight“.