Artur Beterbiev

Beterbiev vs. Cloud

After winning his first five professional bouts, Beterbiev would face off against former IBF light-heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud for the vacant NABA title on September 27, 2014. After a tentative opening minute from both fighters, Beterbiev opened up and began landing powerful shots that visibly rocked Cloud. In the final minute, the Russian would drop his opponent three times via combinations. Before this fight, Cloud had never been dropped in his professional career. Beterbiev would close the show in round two, landing multiple hard shots to the head that knocked Cloud out, giving Beterbiev his first title.^[5]

Beterbiev vs. Page, Campillo

On December 2014, Beterbiev stopped light heavyweight prospect Jeff Page Jr. in two rounds, winning the vacant IBF North American and NABO light-heavyweight titles. However, Beterbiev was dropped for the first time in a professional fight in the first stanza of the fight. "I felt a bit sleepy before the fight. I think I just lost my concentration for a fraction of a second," Beterbiev said of the knockdown.^[6] Afterwards, Beterbiev would face off against another former IBF world champion, Gabriel Campillo, with his North American title at stake. Both men began cautiously until Beterbiev dropped Campillo late in the first round. The Russian slowly wore down his foe with multiple straight rights to the body. Finally in the fourth, Beterbiev would land a straight/uppercut hybrid that would hit Campillo square on the chin, and followed it up with a perfunctory left hook before walking to his corner while his opponent slid to the canvas, barely conscious.^[7] The PSI detector in his gloves stated that the first punch landed with 973 pounds per square inch.

Subsequent defenses

Beterbiev improved his record to 9-0 against Alexander Johnson on June 12, 2015 at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. Beterbiev knocked Johnson down twice in the fifth and a third time in the seventh before finishing him at 1:38 of the round, clobbering him with a left hook and finishing him off with a overhand right that put Johnson through the ropes down and out.^[8] With the win, Beterbiev added the vacant WBO International light-heavyweight title to his other four minor titles.

On June 2016, Beterbiev defeated Ezequiel Maderna by round 4 TKO, dropping him four times along the way.^[9] Beterbiev's eleventh professional win came against Isidro Prieto, whom he knocked out after a flurry of punches at the end of the first round.^[10] Beterbiev had several title eliminators and world title shots fall through, including bouts against Sullivan Barrera, Igor Mikhalkin, and Sergey Kovalev.^[11][12][13] He also faced long periods of inactivity in a promotional dispute against Yvon Michel.^[14]