Who is Artur Beterbiev? Boxing Record, Bio and Background

You only need to look at the Artur Beterbiev boxing record to know why he’s so highly regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world right now.

The undefeated light heavyweight has three world titles to his name and has stopped everyone who’s tried to take any of them off him.

In fact, he’s stopped literally everyone who has stepped inside of the ring with him since he turned professional.

On Saturday night, he takes on Callum Smith in his latest defense of the titles, where a win will potentially set up a super fight with Dimitry Bivol to decide the division’s undisputed champion.

Ahead of Saturday’s main even we’ve got the Artur Beterbiev bio and everything you need to know.

Who is Artur Beterbiev?

Born in Dagestan, Russia, Beterbiev is one of the greatest fighters on earth, although he isn’t currently in the Ring’s top 10 pound-for-pound fighters.

When the WBC, IBF and IBO stated they wouldn’t sanction fights involving Russians, following the country's invasion of Ukraine, he decided to represent Canada. 

The Beterbiev bio reveals he had lived in Canada for 15 years prior to his decision and held a Canadian passport and residency, with his children born in North America.

He rightly has a reputation as a power puncher, having finished all of his fights inside the distance.

Artur Beterbiev’s Amateur Career

He fought as both a light heavyweight and heavyweight during his time in the amateur ranks, with most of his success coming at light heavyweight.

In the 80kg class he won gold at two European championships, another gold at the World championships and one at the 2008 World Cup in Russia.

He also had a silver medal at the World Championships in Chicago in 2007, after losing in an upset in the final.

His story in the Olympics was not as successful, losing in Bejing in 2008 to local hero Zhang Xiaoping in controversial circumstances, before Zhang went on to win gold.

He later moved up to the heavyweight division where future world champion Oleksandr Usyk beat him in both the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics, preventing the Artur Beterbiev boxing record from having further medal success in both.

Artur Beterbiev’s Professional Career

Whilst the Artur Beterbiev bio is pretty impressive in the amateur ranks, it’s nothing compared to what he’s done at the professional level.

He had moved to Quebec by the time he started in boxing’s paid ranks in June 2013 and it housed his first eight fights as a professional.

The former amateur world champion set about impressing straight away and won all eight of those by stoppage.

He only once went as far as the fourth round as he already began amassing a reputation for being a power puncher. 

His first fight outside of Canada came against Alexander Johnson in Chicago, Illinois, as he won the vacant WBO International light-heavyweight title and was taken to the seventh round.

Two more wins by stoppage in Quebec earned him the chance to win his first world title as a professional.

He took on Enrico Kölling for the vacant IBF light heavyweight world title in Fresno, California.

For the first time in his career he was taken to the final round of the fight but it didn’t mean the judges decided it, with Beterbiev earning his victory with 27 seconds left of the fight.

He has retained that belt, and his perfect run of stoppages, throughout the following seven fights of his career.

He added the WBC belt with a 10th round stoppage victory over Oleksandr Gvozdyk in October 2019.

After two more successful defenses, he defeated Joe Smith Jr in June 2022 to add the IBF title and leave himself needing only the WBA belt to become the undisputed champion at the weight.

A win over Anthony Yarde nearly a year ago is the most recent occasion that the 38-year-old has been inside the ring.

Artur Beterbiev Bio

As well as the Artur Beterbiev boxing record, the Canadian has had some controversy around his representation. 

He had originally been promoted by Yvon Michel but the boxer believed that his deal was over.

It all ended in court with Beterbiev losing the original case, before later agreeing to an out-of-court settlement and it ended quite amicably in the end. 

He signed a deal with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing following the split but stayed with them for only one fight. He then went to Top Rank.

This weekend he comes up against Hearn’s fighter Smith after one of the more bizarre purse bids in boxing history.

Matchroom and Top Rank were split by just $15,000, with the champion’s promoters winning by one of the smallest margins for a major fight in recent history.