Dmitry Bivol is doing the work and training in the snow for his rematch in 68 days against undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev on February 22, 2025 in Riyadh.
Bivol (33) needs to increase his punching output in the rematch and not much around the ring as much as he did in the first fight. It appeared to many fans that he was running away from the fight, giving the appearance that Bivol was in survival mode the entire 12-round contest.
What Bivol should do in Rematch
- Stay in the pocket and engage
- Increase punch output
- Don’t hold on and run
- Show Bravery: This area was missing from Bivol last time.
Bivol’s minimalist approach
In his loss to Beterbiev, it looked like Bivol was trying to get a cheap win by doing the bare minimum and hoping the judges would give him the win based on his minimalist approach.
Former WBA 175-lb champion Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) lost to Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) by 12-round majority decision two months ago on October 12. The judges scored it 115-113, 116-112 for Beterbiev and 114-114.
Due to fan interest, the promoters, Eddie Hearn at Matchroom & Top Rank and Turki Alalshikh, Bivol gets a rematch he doesn’t deserve. He should deserve the rematch because he didn’t show bravery in their first fight last October.
He fought just like Shakur Stevenson, who uses the same style and gets booed out of arenas. Bivol needs a complete makeover.
In the video clip, Bivol uses a lot of feints and moves his upper body to avoid the imaginary blows coming at him from Beterbiev on February 22.
Enter to win
Hopefully Bivol will come fighting this time as he showed no willingness to engage with Beterbiev once he started applying non-stop pressure from the sixth round. It was hard to watch last time.
Bivol was aggressive when he fought lesser fighters, but he looked scared against Beterbiev. We saw similar behavior from Bivol when Lyndon Arthur hurt him in the eighth round of their fight on December 23, 2023. Bivol got on his bike and stayed on the move for the last four rounds to win a decision. He looks scared of Arthur.
❄️🥶🔙🔜
🎥 @bivol_d | #BeterbievBivol2 | #Riyadh Season | February 22 | Live on Dazn | @Turki_alalshikh pic.twitter.com/Oh6SD0laxL
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) December 16, 2024
