June 1st, Dmitry Bivol believes he will come out on top over Artur Beterbiev
Light heavyweight is an often-overlooked division. Sandwiched between the drama at heavyweight, and the elegance in the lighter divisions. In recent years a once-overlooked division has taken the limelight.
Two fighters, with contrasting styles yet equally dominant results, are set to butt heads on June 1 in Saudi Arabia.
Dmitry Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs), a man famed for a Houdini-like elusiveness and tactical mastery, will face off against Artur Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs), the power-punching phenom with a perfect – and scarily devastating – knockout record.
Bivol, the 2022 Ring fighter of the year, carries no misjudgement as we edge closer to this fight. Underestimating his Russian counterparts’ power is perhaps the worst mistake you could make and the 33-year-old would be the first to admit to the danger his rival brings to the table.
“To be honest I believe that it is the hardest test,” Bivol relayed to Matchroom Boxing.
“Why? Because he is stronger. I know that he is physically stronger than Canelo. He has good technique too. Many people talk about his power but they forget about his technique because his power is so much better than his technique, but he still had good technique.
“First of all he is strong, very strong. He’s like stone. His punches are very hard and his body is hard. He believes in himself a lot. He has experience, a lot of experience. If you look at his pro record, he doesn’t have too many fights, but he has a lot of experience in the amateurs. It helps him. He uses body shots with his right hand – it’s a good body shot. And he’s strong, this is one of the most important things.
“We’re all human. We all have weak sides. We all have good sides. Even him, we saw some of the moments which he wasn’t good in his last fight. I just need to create as many moments as I can that aren’t comfortable for him and I shouldn’t let him create moments that are uncomfortable for me. That’s it. It’s easy to be honest. We don’t need to think about it too much. Just do your work. I have to do my work and I know I can win if I do my work well.”
Both men are coming off the back of recent, and equally impressive victories, though their wins coming through opposite means.
The WBA champ convincingly won every round against Lyndon Artur on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card in December.
His Russian-Canadian counterpart went toe-toe with Britain’s Callum Smith in January, upholding his fearsome reputation, knocking Smith down twice in the seventh before the fight was waved off by ‘Mundo’s’ corner.
Weighing in on Beterbiev’s recent performance, the technical genius revealed that nothing he saw on January 13 surprised him.
“I wasn’t surprised too much to be honest. Beterbiev was good as I expected to be against Smith. I didn’t see something new. He was powerful like he was before and he did his job well.
“I thought he would win. I didn’t have any expectation how he would win. I just felt like he should win. He won like he won and I wasn’t surprised. I wasn’t surprised that he was coming too close to Smith easily. He just did his job well.”
Turning his focus back to the prospective summer showdown, the man with the fast hands appears hopeful he has the skills to neutralise the harrowing threat Beterbiev brings to the table.
“I love boxing so much. I like smart boxing and I want to believe that I’m showing this boxing to the people. It should be better than power or just speed. I hope the skills should win. I hope I have enough skills to win this fight. I will push myself to do it.”