These are hundreds of notebooks. Filled with notes collected after every workout, every treatment, after every fight.
When Artur wants to know when he trained six days before a fight four years ago, he pulls out his notebooks, finds the right page, and is ready to answer a question. More than that, he described his sensations, how he felt after such an exercise and how he had made progress that day.
“It’s a discipline I learned in amateur boxing. I was asked to rate my progress. I went ahead and kept the habit by becoming a pro. It helps me to go further and get better. I get a lot of information from it,” Artur Beterbiev replies when I discuss the topic with him.
“I write down everything I do and why I do it. I think it helps me get to know myself better. And personally, I think I know myself better than anyone. I like to work on myself, improve my weaknesses, learn and do more and better,” added the Montrealer, neglected by the mayor.
The world champion ate at around 5:30 p.m. A good plate of Asian pasta and vegetables. No meat as the hotel cannot guarantee that the meat comes from a halal butcher. Artur does not toy with practicing his Muslim faith.
A GREAT BOOK
Artur Beterbiev started keeping this boxing diary when he was about fifteen.
“I was already a very good boxer at the age of 14 or 15. Cadet World Champion. I started boxing when I was nine and haven’t stopped since. I turned 38 the day before yesterday, I’ve been boxing for 29 years,” he says to his friend Bek, a Chechen like himself.
Artur’s notebooks weigh heavily in his entire team’s approach to him. Whether it’s Marc Ramsay, Luc-Vincent Ouellet or Samuel Décarie, everyone who works with him says he’s the most extraordinary boxer they’ve ever known.
“When we said to Eleider Alvarez, do it, he did it immediately. When we ask Artur to do this and that, he replies: Why? You must have solid arguments and reasons to convince him. But once he thinks about it and agrees to the request, he has a terrifying intensity and focus. I never saw that. Artur Beterbiev is 100 percent focused on goal. Be ready for a fight. It’s crazy,” says Luc-Vincent Ouellet.
“And his notebooks?” Would that make a whole book?
– I don’t know if he would like to share one day. Maybe that could be his boxing heritage.
If you ask Beterbiev, he shrugs.
“I write my notebooks for myself. A book ? I don’t know,” he said, smiling.
PREPARE FOR 13 ROUNDS
Artur Beterbiev has just turned 38. Some boxers are 38 years old. Artur Beterbiev is still young.
“He has the maturity of a 38-year-old, that’s for sure. But physically he was protected by his disciplined life and the work he imposed on himself. He hasn’t lost a split second or an ounce of power,” replies Luc-Vincent Ouellet, who often works with the champion.
Marc Ramsay, who has become a master at coaching and is admired by his peers, acknowledges Beterbiev has helped him advance in his art.
“You can’t answer an Artur Beterbiev’s questions and demands without constantly improving,” said Marc Ramsay upon arrival in London.
And Artur isn’t tired of getting killed on the job. Training six days a week at a hell of a pace and dedicating your life to boxing. He is a husband and father of four children.
“It’s been like this since I started. I prepare for 13 rounds, not 12. Always 100 percent. I always do more than normal. I find it hard and difficult. But on Sunday, the day after the fight, I have my reward,” he replies.
So far he has always won.
gym change
Everything should be planned. Except for the heating problems.
The first night he arrived, Artur’s gang made their way to the gym set aside for the champion’s late-night workout. Ask him to get used to the jetlag and the time of the fight at Wembley as soon as possible.
“But in the gym it was minus five. We had to change up the training, putting more emphasis on fast repetition exercises to keep Artur warm and injury-free. A real hassle,” says Luc-Vincent Ouellet.
better heated
So a permanent solution had to be found.
Ouellet finally found another gym… better heated and everything has been fine ever since.
Sunday, Beterbiev’s rest day, the Russian wanted to relax in the sauna. Luckily we are in London. And in the banias, a Russian sauna, Beterbiev went to rest his weary body.
IN NOTEBOOK – I wrote yesterday that Me Anthony Rudman, Beterbiev’s lawyer, was already in London. It arrives more likely on Thursday.
“When you’re dealing with two promoters who do real business with each other, it’s a lot easier,” he says.
The two promoters are Bob Arum and Frank Warren. Together they are over 160 years old.
drive to Left
AROUND THE WORLD IN 25 DISHES
It’s called Box Park. A large building housing at least 25 canteens on the first floor serving multinational food. The Thaï Express sits alongside Argentina’s Grillades and the Japanese meets the Italian while the Malaysian is sandwiched between the Greek and the Indian. It’s a trip around the world in 25 canteens. And I think that somehow describes London today. It seems like the whole planet has gathered around Wembley and other parts of London. Faces are often dark, clothes exotic, and evidently when listening to conversations we notice accents that are hardly British.
What is striking, however, is the harmony that seems to reign in the neighborhood’s streets and squares. And the answer is quickly obvious. We can speak any language at home, but to find ourselves on a street corner, we switch to English.
We’re not switching to French in Montreal. That’s the drama.
WHY DRIVE LEFT?
Look to the right…the tourist preparing to cross the street to the right has this memory of all crosswalks. And honestly, we’ve all come close to a major accident at least once while maintaining our Quebec reflex of looking left to see if a car is coming.
Driving left would be a relic of knightly battles when the hero held his spear in his right hand. And later when the coachmen held their whips in their right hands.
From this I conclude that the French, Germans, Italians, Spanish and others had left-handed knights and charioteers.
A MODEL FOR THE OLYMPIC STADIUM
Mayor Jean Drapeau dreamed that the presence of the Olympic Stadium in the east of the city would trigger a tremendous boom. That neighborhoods would thrive around the Olympic Park.
The good mayor has to roll in his grave when he sees what the city he loved and sold to the world looks like.
In any case, the English knew what to do with their stadium. Even pop art on the stairs leading to the popular sections.
LOSING THE WAR EXITS
I won the battle of Harrods. But I lost the one at the Designers Outlets near Wembley Stadium. You’ve no doubt understood that with a modern 90,000-seat stadium and a 20,000-seat arena right next door, where the Canadians faced the Chicago Blackhawks twice in 1991-92, you understood that a wealthy clientele is eager for a buck spend victory for their favorites.
Like St-Antoine Street after a Canadiens game.