Artur Beterbiev says he is considering moving up in weight if he is victorious in his undisputed lightweight showdown against WBA 175lb champion Dmitry Bivol on October 12 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
IBF, WBC and WBO champion Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) declares that he has achieved his goal of winning all the light heavyweight belts when he fights Bivol (23-0 , 12 KOs) prevail. ). However, he is still not sure what he will do next.
If Beterbiev does move up to cruiserweight, fans will be interested in a fight between him and undefeated IBF champion Jai Opetaia, who is considered the best fighter in the division.
Opetaia is a good fighter but he looked uncomfortable with the pressure put on him in his last fight against Mairis Briedis in their rematch on May 18.
Beterbiev-Bivol will be shown live on ESPN+ at the Kingdom Arena in a split broadcast event. The submap will be displayed on a different network.
It will be difficult for Beterbiev to defeat Bivol as he will have to cut off the ring and chase him around the ring all night. In recent training footage from Bivol, he uses a lot of movement, suggesting he will try to keep Beterbiev on the outside.
“I’m not excited about a face. I’m excited for a fight. He is a good boxer and he is my challenge,” Artur Beterbiev told the Queensberry YouTube channel, talking about his fight against Dmitri Bivol on October 13.
“I don’t know. I’ve already had two fights against undisputed in a unification fight, and the two guys are also good, and we’ll see what happens with this guy,” Beterbiev said when asked if Bivol is the toughest fight of his career.
Beterbiev recently defeated Callum Smith, Anthony Yarde and WBO champion Joe Smith Jr. dusted off Neither of those fighters gave Beterbiev much trouble. Yarde fought well earlier in the fight, but was worn down by Beterbiev’s pressure and knocked out in the eighth round on January 28 last year.
“No. No fights are personal,” Beterbiev said. “It’s just like I want another belt. I feel like in the boxing gym, when you do a job, I feel like there’s room to do better. I always feel that way. I need to do more training on my skills. I will try to be a good boxer.”
Trying to box Bivol may not be a good idea for Beterbiev as he is better off focusing on his usual fighting style of knocking him out. If Beterbiev got into a boxing match, he would play into his hands.
“My goal is to be a good boxer one day. That means I’m not there yet. I have to do hard training because I’m not there. I’m not a good boxer yet. I will be a good boxer if I do hard training,” said Beterbiev.
“I think for this category this is the main goal,” says Beterbiev. He would have gone as far as he wanted if he caught the undisputed at light heavyweight. “We will see about that. Challenges can be in different categories. Gain (in weight). I’m not focused on these things,” Beterbiev said.
