Commentator Sergio Mora predicts a late stoppage of Artur Beterbiev by Dmitri Bivol on Saturday night. Mora felt that Beterbiev’s career was over after he suffered a right knee injury five months ago in May, and he did not have much time to return from surgery. Even if he did, the meniscus injury he suffered can permanently affect a fighter’s career.
(Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)
Fans and the media do not know the severity of Beterbiev’s knee injury. If it wasn’t a serious one, that would explain why he was able to return to the ring so soon. Beterbiev is believed to have returned to training in August, just three months after the injury.
“When you’re dealing with the knee, you can pretty much kiss your career goodbye,” Sergio Mora told Chris Mannix. YouTube channel, talks about Artur Beterbiev’s recent knee injury. “I think Bivol will get a late break.
“I watched both of these guys and I favored Bivol by decision, but then I watched Bivol turn it on and stay consistent with his offense.”
Bivol is not a knockout, and it is not realistic to assume that he will score a stoppage against Beterbiev unless his knee is in bad shape. Fighting with only one good leg will affect Beterbiev’s strength as well as his ability to move.
“He didn’t turn it on against Lyndon Arthur,” Mannix said of Bivol’s careful 12-round victory over Lyndon last December.
“Smart fighters are good at going the distance and not getting hit. He’s just too smart for his own good,” Mora said of Bivol. “Against Beterbiev, he’s not going to give him the opportunity to cross that finish line. Beterbiev would rather be knocked out in a big fight than lose a competitive decision. That’s why I think he’s going to be stopped; he’s going to run into something big through Bivol.
“I think Bivol is going to cut him open with that jab. It’s going to be heavy hands vs quick feet, and I favor the quick feet of Bivol,” said Mora.
If Beterbiev’s scar tissue from his fight against Marcus Browne is vulnerable, he could be cut up, as Mora foresees. However, cutting Beterbiev up could make him more dangerous because he was a different animal when he bled in the Browne fight.
The New Yorker Browne is a much bigger puncher than Bivol, and he hit Beterbiev with hard punches early in that fight. But after Beterbiev went over his right eye in the fourth round from an accidental clash of heads, he looked like a raging bull, walking through Browne’s formidable punches to land heavy blows to the head and body. In the ninth, Beterbiev knocked out Browne.
Bivol’s footwork will be key
“It doesn’t matter if you can handle what he does. If you take shots and get hurt, it changes the fight, and it can happen very quickly,” said Eddie Hearn. Fight Hub TVwhich discusses the Beterbiev-Bivol fight.
“People think against these fighters with good footwork, ‘All you have to do is walk them down and let your hands go.’ It doesn’t work like that because they’ll pin you left, right and center, and they’ll move at the corners,” Hearn said.
If Bivol moved like Shakur Stevenson, Beterbiev would have a lot of trouble landing, but fighting like that would make it difficult for Dmitri to land his shots. No one can fight like that and expect to land enough shots to win a clear decision and keep the crowd from booing them out of the arena.
Hearn’s “global superstar” fighter, Shakur, endures the bullies every time he fights, but he’s used to it. Bivol has never been booed before. So he won’t run from Beterbiev as Hearn intends to keep taking punishment.
“Dmitry’s footwork must be found in this fight. He said it in an interview the other day: ‘I have to win every round.’ You might win one or two along the way, but you have to keep fighting round by round. You hope to get to nine or ten, and you’re up 8-2, and then you’ve got two rounds to go,” Hearn said.
Bivol will eventually have to put himself in range to get hit, and that could be his problem. He’s not going to win a decision against Beterbiev by running around the ring for 12 rounds trying to avoid him. It’s not his style, and it never has been.
Bivol generally mixes it up with his opponents, rushing in to land a one-two with the classic Eastern European style and then stepping back two or three feet. He will often stop to throw a jab if his opponents are chasing him. But even against the short 5’8″ Canelo Alvarez, Bivol took a lot of punches, and his face was swollen afterward.
It was far from a shutout that Bivol pitched. He was tagged in that fight, and if Canelo can do that, it’s scary to think what Beterbiev will do.
