The first fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed light heavyweight championship finally happened because of the financing of Turki Alalshikh and his Riyadh Season entity.
The second fight may have to wait because of the timing of the actual Riyadh Season festival, according to Bob Arum of Top Rank, which promotes Beterbiev.
The Riyadh Season events are held beginning in October and continue on for several months. Alalshikh is financing boxing in part to attempt to draw positive attention for Saudi Arabia. Many critics call this effort sportswashing that is intended to change the narrative about the country and its human rights record.
“Turki, who’s a guy who loves boxing, wants to see a rematch, and I think the public would love to see a rematch. But again, because the Riyadh Season ends in February, the earliest date for a rematch would be next October,” Arum told boxing reporter Dan Rafael on his Fight Freaks Unite podcast.
Rafael noted that Alalshikh has financed boxing matches in other times of the year and in other locations. For example, Beterbiev vs. Bivol was originally supposed to take place in June 2024. And the August show featuring Israil Madrimov vs. Terence Crawford was held in Los Angeles.
“But that is not what they’re going to do in the future. I think there was a lot of pushback on His Excellency for doing fights outside of Saudi Arabia and outside of Riyadh Season,” Arum said. “I think going forward, in order to tap into the large budget that they will have, they will have to do the fights in Riyadh Season in Saudi Arabia, which makes sense. So it may mean that each of these guys fight one more time against other opponents, and then for October of next year, they do the rematch. I think that is, from a business standpoint, the likeliest thing that will happen.”
If what Arum says holds true, this would allow Beterbiev to make a defense against IBF mandatory challenger Michael Eifert.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
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