Artur Beterbiev

Beterbiev moved to Montreal to pursue a professional career.[4] He won his professional debut via a second-round TKO over Christian Cruz at the Bell Centre on July 8, 2013. Beterbiev fought on the undercard of Jean Pascal vs. Lucian Bute, beating Gabriel Lecrosnier by TKO on the fourth round.

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]

In 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.

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 an 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.

In 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]

In July 2017, Beterbiev had yet another world title eliminator fall through. He was scheduled to face Enrico Kölling, with the winner becoming the IBF's mandatory challenger to unified world champion Andre Ward, but the fight was never finalized amidst Beterbiev's contract dispute.[15] A purse bid was later won by Top Rank, with the American promotion planning to broadcast the fight on ESPN, as part of a show including Jessie Magdaleno.[16] The show was later announced to be taking place on November 11 at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno.[17] Magdaleno would later drop out with an injury.[18]

Andre Ward officially announced his retirement on September, therefore the IBF title became vacant. The IBF later announced that the fight between Beterbiev and Kölling would be for the now-vacant world title.[19] Beterbiev dominated Kölling in a dull fight, walking him down while Kölling refused to engage.[20] Beterbiev finally scored a knockdown in round 12, as Kölling went down on one knee and received a count. When the fight resumed, Beterbiev dropped Kölling again and the referee waved the fight off. Beterbiev landed 322 of 1,111 punches (29 percent) while Kölling landed 64 of 252 blows (25 percent).[21]

In October 2018, Beterbiev fought British champion Callum Johnson in a mandatory defence of his IBF world title in Chicago.[22] Johnson, ranked 7th in the world with the IBF at the time, was coming off a round 1 TKO of domestic rival Frank Buglioni; his first fight in nearly one-and-a-half years.[23] Beterbiev accepted the fight on a co-promotional deal with Matchroom Boxing USA, which was aired live on DAZN in the USA and on Sky Sports in the UK.[24]

Beterbiev won an action-packed fight by round 4 KO, which saw both men hurt and knocked down; Johnson in round 1 by a Beterbiev right hand followed by Beterbiev in round 2 from a Johnson left hook. Both men fought aggressively but it was Beterbiev who knocked down Johnson a final time in round 4 with another right hand to the head; the British fighter failed to beat the count and Beterbiev retained his world title.[25]

After Beterbiev defeated Radivoje Kalajdzic (24-1) by KO in May 2019, Top Rank set to work on a unification fight between Beterbiev and WBC and lineal light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk (17-0) for some time in Autumn 2019 on ESPN. The winner of Beterbiev vs. Gvozdyk will hold two of the four world titles at 175, and set up further unification matches. In July it was announced that the fight would be on 18 October, at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.[26] Beterbiev would go on to win the fight in the 10th round by TKO. [27]