Artur Beterbiev says his team has made some changes in his training and he hopes to be at least 10% improved for his rematch with Dmitry Bivol on February 22 in Riyadh.
Undisputed light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) won’t reveal what areas he has improved, but he reckons it will be enough to make the fight more exciting.
10% better
The look on Beterbiev’s face during interviews this week suggests he will attack Bivol relentlessly, forcing him to either fight or flee. Last time, Bivol fled, which saved him from being knocked down, but it still cost him the fight. He was too focused on survival.
I suspect that will be his main goal this time once he starts feeling the heat from Beterbiev. Bivol is a good fighter when he’s not dealing with anything being thrown back at him. But when his opponents throw, he tracks up or retreats. He has always fought like this.
“We have changed certain things in training. I hope to be better in this fight than I was in the first fight,” said Artur Beterbiev talkSport Boxing about his reunion with Dmitri Bivol on February 22. “Before I was undisputed, I wanted to get a fourth belt. Now I want to keep them.
“If I receive offers for this thing, I will look at it. So far I’ve only received an offer for a rematch and I’ve accepted it,” Beterbiev said when asked if he would be willing to move up to cruiserweight to fight after this.
“I can take any fight if I have different offers. I will watch with my team and take it,” Beterbiev said when asked if he would be interested in fighting Canelo Alvarez or Jai Opetaia if he defeats Bivol.
“28,” Beterbiev said when asked how old he was.
Bivol’s tactics
At 34, he’s too old to change now, and the only thing he can do differently in the rematch is hold on more. That’s what many fighters say he should have done last time. That’s what we’ll likely see more of Bivol to neutralize Beterbiev’s offense.
Last time, Beterbiev started slow and let Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) win the first quarter of the fight with his jab and quick left-right combinations.
Beterbiev started to look like his usual self in the middle of the fight. Bivol gained confidence and showed no respect for Artur as he did in his recent fights against Malik Zinad, Lyndon Arthur and Gilberto Ramirez.
Clearly Bivol misjudged Beterbiev and paid the price as he took the fight from round six and never looked back. The scores were 115-113, 116-112 for Beterbiev and 114-114.
Interestingly, many fans and fighters are rooting for Bivol to win the fight. They believe he did enough to win the first fight, even admitting he didn’t seem to win a single round from the sixth. They still think he won. It didn’t look like Bivol had won.
For Bivol to win, he is also going to have to fight with more aggression, because Beterbiev is going to put more pressure on him this time. The judges preferred Artur’s attacking style to the withdrawal that Bivol did.
“If I have a chance for 10%, I will be much better,” Beterbiev said Queensberry Promotions about how much improvement would make him happy for his reunion with Bivol. “I can’t tell you. You will tell Bivol. I know you talk about me with Bivol,” Beterbiev said when asked what areas he wanted to improve.
“I hope and believe it will be a more interesting fight than the first one, because now we know each other,” Beterbiev said about the rematch with Bivol.
