Triple-belt unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev will go for WBA champion Dmitry Bivol’s belt come Saturday night in their undisputed championship contest at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. The fight will be shown live on DAZN PPV, along with the undercard.
This fight is supposed to be a 50-50 one, but fans should be ready to see a full rout with Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) too powerful and rugged for the finer fighter Bivol (23- 0, 12 KOs).
Fans are hoping to see a war in the ring on Saturday, but they haven’t seen Bivol fight. He is not that type of fighter. He’s more of a boxer, and he doesn’t fancy gunfights because of his history of getting hurt.
“This is the best game. It puts the most stylish fighter in the world in my mind. It’s Dmitri Bivol against the most destructive, Artur Beterbiev,” said commentator Mark Kriegel. Top Rank Boxing.
I don’t think this is the best match in the light heavyweight division, but it is one of the best. There are more entertaining guys in the 175-lb division that will give Artur more of a fan-friendly fight.
– David Benavidez
– Anthony Yarde: *rematch
–David Morrell
– Joshua Buatsi
– Wily Hutchinson
“Artur Beterbiev brings three belts to the table, but Dmitry Bivol brings that one belt. It’s so valuable because he beat Canelo Alvarez (in 2022). It means you are an elite competitor,” said commentator Bernard Osuna. “It’s such a compelling battle. You can see it going either way. This guy is a destructive force and once he gets going, the freight train just runs you over,” Osuna said of Beterbiev.
I don’t see this as a fight that can go either way, but I’ve watched Beterbierv and Bivol their entire careers. This is a catch-and-mouse type of fight, which could be boring if Dmitry chooses to move all night like he did against Lyndon Arthur and Canelo Alvarez.
“This is a fan friendly fight. I think this is a great fight for boxing because all the belts are on the line but only one man can win. That guy is going to have to be the best he’s ever been in his entire career,” analyst Tim Bradley said. “Is this one of the best fights that can be made in boxing? Absolutely, yes, because we don’t know who will win the fight.
“This is a unification fight. This is a very big motivation for me,” said Artur Beterbiev. “Of course I’m excited. It is my goal to be a unified world champion. I try to be ready for every fight, and I want to prove something.”
Beterbiev may have beaten better fighters than Bivol during his professional career, and was robbed in the 2012 London Olympics after dominating Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk. Artur’s wins over Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Anthony Yarde and Callum Smith were against fighters who are arguably better pro talents than Bivol. They just aren’t matched like him.
“What is the minimum? The maximum is to collect all belts. Okay, that’s my maximum,” Bivol said. “This is boxing, and you have to be ready for whole situations.”
It doesn’t get any better than this for Bivol, because whatever comes next won’t be as big. Two-time Olympian Beterbiev has been a force of nature since turning pro, and it will say a lot about Bivol if he can become the guy who hands him his first career loss. On the other hand, it is not the end of the world for Bivol if he loses. He is young enough at 33 to come back and capture more and more belts.
Beterbiev is likely to vacate the four titles and move up to cruiserweight if he prevails on Saturday, leaving the fragmented belts up for grabs. As long as a knockout loss to Beterbiev doesn’t ruin Bivol’s striking resistance, he should be able to come back and capture one of the belts after leaving the division.
