Former light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol’s aim for his rematch with Artur Beterbiev on Saturday is to leave no doubt that he has won.
Their first fight, a high-class spectacle in October 2024 for the undisputed light-heavyweight title, was won by Beterbiev by the narrowest of margins, leaving observers split as to who deserved the verdict.
The defeat represented only Bivol’s first in 24 fights, and he has vowed to respond and win in a convincing manner.
Bivol, who told The Stomping Ground that his training camp has had a good balance of work and relaxation, was asked why he accepted defeat so well when others, including his promoter Eddie Hearn, were far more outspoken.
“Because I didn’t like my job,” Bivol said of his previous performance. “I knew it was some doubt inside my head inside some of the fans, and I want to win always without doubt.”
He also said he has not labored over going over the previous bout ahead of the equally enticing rematch.
“I don’t care, I don’t even want to count,” the 34 year old said of the scores from October. “I will find that I won more rounds, like seven-five and I will tell myself, ‘Yeah, I did the job, I won, but it wasn’t fair for me’, and this and that and I will be relaxed.
“I don’t want to be relaxed to find somebody else’s mistake in the fight. It was only my mistake. I could win this fight without doubt.”
Asked whether the rematch was the fight he wanted more than any other, Bivol replied: “Of course. He [the GEA’s Turki Alalshikh] asked about the match and I said ‘Of course’. He said I have this date I said, ‘Yes, okay’.”
Read the full article here
