Dmitry Bivol believes he has the power to knock out undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev in their rematch on February 22nd in Riyadh.
It would make for an interesting fight if Bivol chose to fight more aggressively in the rematch, as he was mostly running and holding the last seven rounds in his loss to Beterbiev two months ago on October 12th in Riyadh. Hence, the judges gave Artur victory. It looked like Bivol was trying to get a cheap victory by doing the minimum.
Bivol is not a big puncher and could put himself at risk if he attempts to go looking for a knockout against Betrbiev, who levels above him in the power and toughness department. Dmitry is more of a fitness fighter who uses his boxing skills to win fights. He tried that approach against Beterbiev but wilted when under attack.
Bivol’s New Approach
Former WBA 175-lb champion Bivol must change his fighting style 100% to knock out Beterbiev. The Matchroom-promoted Dmitry was too defensive and did not show any desire to stand and engage with Beterbiev.
Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) says he’s been studying the video of his 12-round majority decision loss to Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) from October 12th and looking for areas where he can improve for the rematch in 75 days. The scores were 115-113, 116-112 for Betterbiev, and 114-114.
“I’m trying not to pay attention to what people say. I’m trying to pay attention to what I feel after the fight and what I need to do,” said Dmitry Bivol to Secondsout about how he’s tuning out fans’ comments as he heads into his rematch with Artur Beterbiev on February 22nd.
“Of course, I felt I have enough power. We have a saying, ‘Even a stick [gun] once a year can shoot.’
“It makes you weaker if you find some excuses. He wants to fight him,” said Bivol about Terence Crawford wanting to fight Canelo Alvarez.
It’s hard to take Bivol seriously with his talk about believing he can knock out Beterbiev because he looked too frightened to do anything but survive once Artur ramped up his offense into full gear after round five.
Conquering Doubt
Bivol had a look in his eyes of a person being chased by an angry bear, and he had no fight in him. It was pure terror. To even win the rematch by decision, Bivol must be willing to risk getting knocked out, by standing and engaging with Beterbiev, because he failed to do that last time.
Moreover, we saw the same thing from Dmitry when he fought Lyndon Arthur last year on December 23rd. Bivol got hurt by a hard body shot from Arthur in the eighth and was on the run from that point on. When Dmitry gets hit hard, he gives up the fight and looks nothing like a world-level fighter.
What was hilarious and off-putting was how Bivol’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, was complaining afterward about the decision, feeling that Dmitry had won. Hearn chose not to take the high road by being gracious in defeat and yapping about the scoring.
He should have admitted that Bivol gave away the fight by running from rounds six through twelve. Of course, if Hearn confessed that Bivol showed no heart under the heat of battle, there would have been no point in a rematch.
Hopefully, the Beterbiev-Bivol rematch will close the chapter in this rivalry because it’ll be more entertaining for the fans to see Beterbiev fight the winner of the February 1st battle between David Benavidez and David Morrell. Those two have far more fan-friendly styles than Bivol, who has a Shakur-esque style.
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