To expect two light-heavyweights in the throes of cutting weight to talk freely and energetically ahead of fighting each other in two days’ time is perhaps as naïve as it is ambitious.
The only thing more naïve, in fact, is to expect two Russian light-heavyweights, neither of whom are conversing in their native tongue, to deliver what the watching world wants from them at a pre-fight press conference.
And yet, this was again the expectation placed on Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol this evening in Saudi Arabia. Just like last time, and the time before that, they showed up at today’s press conference with nothing much to say and only a desire to get away as quickly as they could. Speaking not in Russian, or even “boxing”, that other language in which both are fluent, Beterbiev and Bivol instead spoke in broken English and seemed bonded by both their frustration and their eagerness to escape.
“I want to defend my belts – very simple,” said Beterbiev, from whom nothing else was heard.
As for Bivol, he did at least try. However, even Bivol, the more pliable of the two, cut a rather bored figure up there at the top table. Grateful, absolutely, but still bored.
“All athletes want to win, always; we are like gamblers,” he said. “Of course I wasn’t the winner last time. Now I want [to win]. It’s burning inside me. I want to change something because I can see where I was wrong. I want to change it. As an athlete, I want it so much.”
Back in October, of course, Bivol suffered the first defeat of his career to Beterbiev, when three ringside judges decided the work he had produced over 12 rounds was not enough. That, given the effort Bivol put forth, can be viewed as either unfair or somewhat ominous, yet this much is clear ahead of Saturday’s rematch: Bivol must do more.
“Every time you are exchanging punches with a fighter like Beterbiev it is a risk,” he said. “But I need to do it. Sometimes more.”
He needs to throw more, yes, and perhaps convince a little more on the night. But one thing Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev do not need to do is talk any more. We have all by now heard enough.
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