Artur Beterbiev Vs Oleksander Gvozdyk: ‘The Nail’ Gets 🔨’d

I have a witness. We all have insular voting preferences of routine, if occasionally. At my favorite tavern of a Chinese food haunt near my hometown in Jersey, as soon as I walk in the owner knows what I want and need. On this day its advice of the silent variety. I sometimes see articles as short films with alternate endings, and have two in place for the writing of Oleksander Gvozdyk Vs Artur Berterbiev: A 🔨and ‘The Nail’.

“Pick one,” I go.

“That one,” he goes, with conviction for absolutely no reason at all. He knew nothing of Las Vegas odds that saw Gvozdyk go from a betting favorite of -145 two weeks ago to just -125 on Friday morning at around 9am ET. Meanwhile, Beterbiev had hovered somewhere between -115 to a firm -105.   

But over steamed vegetables and rice with shrimp egg rolls, I keep staring at the 2nd option which was really the 1st one. “My gut tells me that Beterbiev will progressively maul Gvozdyk. They are as different as Russia and Ukraine; and in this case, the constitution of Beterbiev will walk down the politics of Gvozdyk. One guy is about a tall one of Guinness Stout in front of a steak n potatoes plate with no salad. The other, an aristocracy of Chilean Sea Bass with Amaranth and an Amstel Lite for posterity. I think ‘The Nail’ gets Hammered by a comebacking Artur Beterbiev via 11th round TKO.” But I scrapped that in favor of Gvozdyk and published around 4pm ET. Just for the hell of it, I checked the lines again at 4:30pm ET. Gvozdyk had moved to -135 while Beterbiev stayed at -105  “The House” always wins, because it always finds ways to figure out how not to lose. How’d Lil Wayne put it? “Devil on my shoulder, the Lord is my witness.”

In the edition that you saw, which reasoned Gvozdyk nailing The 🔨and getting him out of there in the 11th round, the prevailing thought featured growth as a result of nearly killing Adonis “Superman” Stevenson, in a fight week marred by the tragedy of Patrick Day. This was where the philosophical psychology of Teddy Atlas would show up, giving Gvozdyk (17-0, 14KOs) the superhuman mental toughness he’d need to overcome a man of supernatural physicality. It wasn’t enough.

Teddy Atlas salutes his losing fighter, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, after “the Nail” got pounded by Artur Beterbiev on Oct. 18, 2019.

Artur Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs), the new unified light heavyweight world champion, is the Khabib Nurmagomedov of boxing. Immovable. Impervious. Indestructible. However, unlike his compatriot and MMA ruffian, not many will bestow upon him the title of the world’s best boxer pound-for-pound. That’s a political race he wouldn’t even care to run for. But as of right now, I can’t think of anyone in the boxing universe who wouldn’t regard Artur Beterbiev as the very best light heavyweight on the planet, and can’t think of a better next match-up pitting him against fellow Russian buzzsaw and WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (16-0, 11KOs) in a 2020 blockbuster. And just think, after Canelo Alvarez dooms Sergey Kovalev to win the WBO light heavyweight title, we could get a a Mexican Independence Day unification superfight featuring Canelo Vs Beterbiev. 

How you like dem apples?