Dmitry Bivol is confident that he’ll be victorious on Saturday in the 5 vs. 5 event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the title defense of his WBA light heavyweight belt against substitute opponent Malik Zinad.
Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs) had been planning on fighting for the undisputed 175-lb championship against IBF/WBC/WBO champion Artur Beterbiev, but he suffered a ruptured meniscus in training and had to pull out.
Stepping Up to the Challenge
Zinad (22-0, 16 KOs) was quickly found and will be taking on the unbeaten Bivol at the Kingdom Arena, live on DAZN.
Bivol says Zinad, 30, reminds him of his last opponent, Lyndon Arthur, who he defeated by a lopsided twelve-round unanimous decision last December. That was a competitive fight despite the scoring, and Bivol was even hurt at one point in the fight in the eighth.
There’s going to be pressure on Bivol to look good in this fight because he’s facing an unknown fighter, who the boxing public believes has zero chance of winning. Bivol played it safe in his last fight against Arthur, choosing to box after being staggered by him.
Bivol’s Perspective on Zinad
“They asked me about Zinad. He just won a fight and became second in the IBF. They said, ‘Do you want to fight with him?’ ‘If possible to make this fight, I will be happy,’” said Dmitry Bivol to Queensberry about how Malik Zinad was picked as the replacement after Artur Beterbiev suffered a knee injury.
“We didn’t have a lot of options. They asked about Zinad, and I said, ‘I’m ready.’”
It would be interesting to know who else was offered to Bivol as a replacement because there are a lot of contenders that would jump at the chance to fight him if they were offered nice paydays to fight on Saturday’s 5 vs 5 card in Saudi Arabia.
“I still believe it’ll happen [fight against Beterbiev] because he will recover, and he wants this fight. He has a similar mind like mine. He wants to reach the maximum,” said Bivol. “I hope I will do everything well on Saturday night, and then I can move forward to this fight.”
The Bivol vs. Beterbiev fight is expected to take place in either late this year or in the first quarter of 2025. It’ll depend on how well Beterbiev rehabs his knee.
“I have to respect him, and I have to be focused,” said Bivol about Zinad. “Yeah, he got his chance, and I’m sure he will try to do his best. I’m a professional athlete, a champion of the world. I have to prove it again.
“Before I had a fight against Lyndon Arthur, he was one of the options. I saw some of his fights. His style is similar to Lyndon Arthur’s. He uses his jab a lot, and he’s good with his right-hand counter punch, and he’s throwing long.”
Zinad appears to have some power, and that at least gives him a chance of winning if he can hurt Bivol with one of his shots. Bivol got a little overconfident against Arthur and was shaken up by a right hand from him in the eighth.
“That’s why they call it professional boxer. If you’re a professional, you have to try to switch [opponents if someone is injured] from one situation to another,” said Bivol. “You have to change sometimes in the ring. I have enough time to change my sparring partners and change my target.
“Maybe he said it, and he’s confident, but I’m confident also,” said Bivol about Zinad saying he’s going to cause an earthquake inside the ring on Saturday. “I have to be better. I have to beat him as much as I can,” said Bivol.
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