On October 12, WBA and IBO World Light Heavyweight Champion Dmitriy Bivol will meet WBC, WBO and IBF World Light Heavyweight Champion Artur Beterbiev in a unification bout. They were supposed to meet months ago, but an injury in training by Beterbiev postponed it.
Beterbiev, who has stopped all twenty of his opponents 20-0, is obviously the heavier puncher of the two with 20 stoppages. At 39, he is six years older than Bivol.
Beterbiev’s amateur record is not entirely known. It was reported at 102-13 and 295-5. He lost in both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Bivol’s amateur record is 268-15 and never competed in the Olympics, but won two Russian national championships in 2012 and 2014.
Bivol turned professional and stopped eleven of his first thirteen opponents. He then won nine in a row by decision before stopping his last opponent, Malik Zinad, 22-0 in June.
In 2012, Bivol was “Fighter of the Year” and defeated then-unified super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, 57-1-2, in May and former WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, 44-0, in November. Quite an achievement.
All of Bivol’s opponents had winning records. Beterbiev’s opponents had sixteen with and four without winning records. Bivol faced the better opponents overall.
It is a natural matchup of a puncher in Beterbiev and a boxer in Bivol regarding their records. Beterbiev was born in Russia and lives in Montreal, Canada. Bivol’s nationality is Russian, although he was born in Kyrgyzstan and lives in Indio, California.
This writer is looking forward to this match and leans towards the younger Bivol by decision. Beterbiev coming off injury is a big factor.
I wonder if Bivol’s hitting power is underestimated. Being his opponents in the second half of his career is much better than Beterbiev’s might have anything to do with it. What do you readers and fans think?
