Eddie Hearn says Artur Beterbiev looked “depleted” yesterday ahead of his fight against Dmitry Bivol this Saturday. Hearn feels that the unified light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) is struggling at the weight, and he may not be at his best this Saturday, October 12th, in Riyadh.
(Credit: Leigh Dawney/Queensberry Promotions)
“If you look back at the Gvozdyk fight, it was really close, but he nearly survived and then got taken out,” said Eddie Hearn to Queensberry about how Oleksandr Gvozdyk fought well against Artur Beterbiev until the tenth round and was knocked out.”
Gvozdyk had success through the first eight rounds against Beterbiev because he used his power to land a lot of hard shots that impressed the judges and made Artur cautious about attacking him. Bivol doesn’t hit as hard as Gvozdyk, and he won’t be able to hold off Beterbiev as well to build up a big early lead.
“Beterbiev doesn’t do too much early. Even against Callum Smith, he was taking his time,” said Hearn. “He was still winning rounds, but it wasn’t like he came out swinging away. It’s pressure, pressure, pressure, but I think Dmitry has the punch volume to win those early rounds. You’ve got to wrack them up, and then you’ve got to hold on for dear life,” said Hearn.
Bivol can win some of the early rounds, but he’s going to be getting pressured a lot, and that’s going to be tiring for him. He can’t move and take heavy shots for the first eight or nine rounds without gassing out from the pressure that is put on him.
“Dmitry says he can make 168. I looked at Beterbiev’s pictures yesterday,” said Hearn. “He wasn’t overly keen to get down to his shorts. I thought he looked a little bit depleted. Don’t get me wrong. He’s an absolute monster still, but at five days out, Dmitry is definitely more comfortable at the weight.”
Hearn could be playing mind games, hoping to get into Beterbiev’s head by planting the idea of him looking drained. I don’t think it’s going to work, but that could be Hearn’s plan. He’s got to try every trick in the book to help Bivol win.
“Beterbiev has been talking about that move to cruiserweight, but he’s been at light heavyweight a long, long time. So, for me, that’s a guy that is going to be much tighter at the weight. I don’t think it’s going to make a massive difference, but I like the fact that Dmitry is so good at the weight because he’s going to need that engine. He’s going to need to throw a lot of punches in there to keep Beterbiev off,” said Hearn.
The reason Beterbiev has talked about wanting to move up to cruiserweight isn’t because he’s having problems making weight at 175. He wants to move up to win more belts, and he can’t do that if he defeats WBA champion Bivol on Saturday. Beterbiev will hold all the titles in the light heavyweight division, and there won’t be anymore more to achieve.
“Can he hurt Beterbiev? I know he stopped Zinad and dropped [Lyndon] Arthur. But to me, it’s about volume, and it’s about feet,” said Hearn.
Bivol could hurt Beterbiev if he were willing to stand in the pocket and unload his volume punching, But to do that, Bivol could get caught and knocked out. Bivol’s trainer isn’t going to take chances by having him take that strategy, and even if he told him to do that, he would focus on staying out of range.
⏳ 3 days out with King Artur. #BeterbievBivol | OCT 12 6PM ET | @ESPNPlus | #RiyadhSeason pic.twitter.com/emlZjLdVFM
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) October 10, 2024
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