Trainer Robert Garcia is confident Dmitry Bivol can win the rematch with Artur Beterbiev if he finishes strong on the last three rounds from the 10th through 12th. Garcia thinks that Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) deserved the win last Saturday night in their undisputed light heavyweight championship clash in Riyadh, but he understands why the judges gave it to Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs).
Garcia says Bivol put too much focus on his defense in the championship rounds and didn’t throw enough punches to win that portion of the fight. He’s not sure if Bivol was tired or if he thought he had the win sealed up, so he wasn’t going to take any chances.
It’s still unclear if there will be a rematch because His Excellency Turki Alalshikh will be the one who determines if he wants to see a second fight. Robert thinks that Beterbiev can fight the winner of the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell, and that would be an excellent clash.
It would be more entertaining for the fans because Benavidez and Morrell are more offense-minded fighters. They’re not going to run around for 12 rounds like Bivol.
“If they do a rematch, especially if it’s in Vegas, if we see the same fight again, this time, I think it’ll go to Bivol,” said trainer Robert Garcia to Fight Hub TV, believing that Dmitry Bivol will defeat Artur Beterbiev in the rematch.
“The judges are hearing everything and reading. A lot of boxing people think Bivon won. In the rematch, any close round might go to Bivol. I think a rematch is what should happen immediately. I think Bivol deserves a rematch, and the boxing world does.
“We should see a rematch. I think the last three rounds, he could have been a little more aggressive, throw more combinations instead of just focusing on your defense on blocking and defending yourself. Let your hands go a little bit more,” said Robert about what Bivol can do to help win the rematch with Beterbiev.
“I saw a lot of success when Beterbiev was backing up. When he was backing up, I think Bivol had some really good success with good combinations, trying to back him up. I don’t know if it was conditioning, maybe the respect and so many punches, and that was why he was backing up, or maybe he thought he was way ahead on the scorecards,” said Garcia.
Bivol only backed up Beterbiev for brief instances in the fight, and he got hurt when he did that in the seventh. It’s not like Bivol was backing up Beterbiev the entire fight, and having success. He only did it a few times, and that was in the first half of the fight. After Bivol got hurt in the seventh, he was on the defensive.
“That’s why he decided to move around and be really defensive and block most of the punches. I think if he pushes himself a little bit more to finish strong in the last three rounds, maybe that’ll be the difference,” said Garcia about what Bivol needs to do to have a better chance of winning the rematch.
If Bivol does fight harder in the last three rounds in the rematch, he might get knocked out by Beterbiev because he’s going to put himself in a position to get hit. Beterbiev wants his opponents to come at him, and Bivol learned the hard way that he couldn’t do that. It’s interesting that Garcia didn’t notice that. If he were Bivol’s trainer, he’d send him out to get knocked out by pushing him to be aggressive, which would play into Beterbiev’s hands.
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