Bakhtiyar won his first competition, a regional children's tournament, trained by Nurlan Akurpekov, who still coaches him today.

Surprisingly, in Athens he easily advanced into semi-finals where he defeated the two-time Olympic champion Oleg Saitov from Russia.

In the final, Bakhtiyar defeated Cuban boxer Lorenzo Aragon, who had not lost a bout for a year and a half.

Artayev won the bronze medal at the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Mianyang, China and went up to middleweight.

[12] In June 2021, Bakhtiar Artayev received the position of the state boxing coach of Kazakhstan.