Fighting Words: Defining moments for Artur Beterbiev, Dmitry Bivol have arrived

How Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol became the two best light heavyweights is the same way they will seek to become the one true king of the 175-pound weight class when they share the ring Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Beterbiev is a power puncher – that is obvious enough given his record (20-0, 20 KOs) and the quality of opponent many of those victories have come against. But he’s more than just a pair of heavy hands.

“A lot of people think Artur is like Mr. T in the ‘Rocky III’ movie – just a destroyer,” said John Scully, the retired former light heavyweight contender who has worked as Beterbiev’s assistant trainer since 2016. “You gotta watch him. Artur is a master boxer. He’s very, very, very technical.”

Bivol is a highly capable boxer – that is obvious enough given how he stymied someone as skilled as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and dominated other contenders. He also has more pop than his record (23-0, 12 KOs) might otherwise indicate, and he’s occasionally willing to let loose with eye-pleasing combinations.

“Dmitry is truly that good,” said Kathy Duva, the longtime promoter who heads up Main Events. Bivol is not signed with the company, but Duva, in her personal capacity, serves as Bivol’s adviser. “Dmitry’s got all the tangibles in this fight. No fight is easy. But I think everybody’s in for a big surprise. I think this guy’s made for Dmitry.”

The fighters and their teams are not just respectful but complimentary of what the opposition is capable of doing. They’re just confident that they can do even better.

“He has great experience and is a good boxer. He’s a good challenge for me,” Beterbiev told BoxingScene’s Manouk Akopyan.

Bivol, meanwhile, recognizes Beterbiev’s considerable attributes, calling the IBF, WBC and WBO titleholder an “amazing puncher” in one interview and concurring with Scully in another:

“He has the skills. He’s not only just a good puncher. He’s a really good and smart fighter,” Bivol said. “He has experience and a boxing IQ. He has three belts for a reason. For his age, he has really good conditioning. I just need to be myself and improve on my skills. You can’t prepare to get punched. You have to prepare not to get punched.”

That’s easier said than done.

“He takes his time and he breaks you down,” Scully said of Beterbiev. “Twelve rounds is a tremendously long time to be in the ring with Artur Beterbiev. I don’t care how good you look early on. I don’t care how sharp you look in the first two rounds, because the sixth round is always going to be way different than the first round with him.”

Beterbiev won his first world title in 2018. In the seven defenses he has made since, the toughest bouts came against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in 2019, Marcus Browne in 2021 and Anthony Yarde in 2023.

Gvozdyk, who was the WBC titleholder and lineal light heavyweight champion at the time, was ahead on two of the three judges’ scorecards when Beterbiev dropped and stopped him in the 10th round.

Browne also took an early lead, and Beterbiev was further endangered when a clash of heads opened a large cut on his forehead in the fourth round, sending blood down his face and into his eyes. But Beterbiev retook control, took the lead and took Browne out in the ninth.

Yarde was ahead on two scorecards after seven rounds, but he was battered and beaten in the eighth.

“Twelve rounds with him is like running a marathon, and you’re not a marathon runner, and you’re just trying and you’re saying to yourself, ‘I gotta do 18 more miles of this,’” Scully said. “They’re hitting [Beterbiev] and they’re saying, ‘Oh, he’s going to get tired.’ And he just gets stronger and stronger and stronger. And he’s almost unstoppable in that regard. You’re not going to get this guy tired. You’re not going to win a war of attrition with him.”

Then again, Bivol may be better, and may fare better, than Gvozdyk, Browne and Yarde. He has also shown plenty of stamina and has a world of experience going 12 rounds and emerging victorious, as he did against the power-punching Joe Smith Jr. in 2019.

“I think [Beterbiev] depends, like most big punchers, on the punch,” Duva said. “And I think if that’s what you’ve got, as Lennox Lewis once said to me famously about David Tua, ‘All he can do is punch. Easy, easy work.’

“I’m not going to say [the Beterbiev fight is] easy. If you look at their opponents that they faced throughout their careers, I think Dmitry has fought far, far tougher opposition much earlier in his career. Everybody’s in love with Beterbiev because he comes in there and he’s silent and he’s the big puncher and he’s got this great image.

“But in the end, I think the superior boxer and the guy who can take the best punch wins those fights. And so I’ve got my money on Dmitry on both counts,” Duva added. “A boxer can do a lot to negate a puncher. It’s not just any old boxer who can beat any old puncher. But if you are a boxer who is as cerebral as Dmitry is – because he’s very cerebral – he’s playing chess the whole time he’s in the ring.”

Then again, Bivol was rocked by Smith at the end of the 10th round of their bout, a right hand from Smith that landed over Bivol’s left hook doing the damage just after the bell rang. The punch landed on Bivol’s left ear, and he wobbled backwards before steadying himself with the ropes on his way back to his corner. Then again (again), Bivol was sturdy on his feet, though cautious, in the 11th and finished with a flourish in the 12th.

“If that was Artur and there was 20 seconds left, the fight’s over,” Scully said.

Beterbiev also faced Smith, taking him out in two rounds in 2022. Triangle theory isn’t foolproof in boxing, however. The most famous example: Joe Frazier beat Muhammad Ali, George Foreman demolished Frazier, and yet Ali defeated Foreman.

In this fight, what each man brings to the ring will challenge his opponent to perform at an even higher level.

“Bivol is a very good boxer. He’s very skilled. He’s very patient,” Scully said. And Artur’s going to have to be on his game 100 percent. But I think his 100 percent against Bivol’s 100 percent, I’m very happy with the matchup.”

“To be honest, all my skills should be at the highest level,” Bivol told BoxingScene’s Lance Pugmire. “Not only speed. Not only movement. Everything. My jab. My right hand. My strength. To be aware of danger. Everything needs to be at the highest level.”

Speaking of 100 percent, Duva questioned whether Beterbiev is, raising the matters of his age (39, while Bivol is 33), injuries and inactivity.

“The guy’s pushing 40 and he’s been injured badly, and he’s really not that active,” she said.

Beterbiev fought once apiece in 2022 and 2023. He’s already fought in 2024, a seventh-round technical knockout of Callum Smith in January. The Bivol fight was originally supposed to take place in early June but was postponed when Beterbiev underwent knee surgery to repair a ruptured meniscus. Beterbiev has also had a number of other injuries over the years: There was a shoulder injury in 2015, a rib injury in 2020 and a leg procedure in 2022.

You wouldn’t expect any fighter or his team to say otherwise, but Scully says Beterbiev is fine, that the knee hasn’t been an issue in training camp and that Beterbiev continues to perform at a high level even though he turns 40 in January.

“When I watch him, I never think about his age,” Scully said. “How many guys do you know in the second half of their 30s who have improved, have gotten better? When you watch Artur’s last few fights, he’s good. He’s become a well-rounded, world-class champion, right? After the fight with Callum Smith, I told Artur, ‘That’s the best you ever looked.’ How many people can say that at 38?”

Beterbiev and Bivol have spent the past several years cementing their status as the two best light heavyweights in the world. Now they have reached their defining moment. They will need to present challenges that their opponent hasn’t faced before. And they will need to overcome circumstances they may never have experienced themselves.

“Bivol, for the most part, he’s been able to fight his fight for his whole career, right?” Scully said. “But the real test is when you reach a point where you can’t fight your fight anymore. Something has changed. A monkey wrench has been thrown in, and now you got to do something else. If he’s willing to do that, I don’t know. If he’s able to do that, I certainly don’t know. I know that Artur can box and create problems. And, obviously, I certainly know that Artur can create destruction. So I think a lot of the fight is going to depend on how strong-willed Dmitry really is with this particular guy. And like I said, I feel good about the fact that I see certain things with him that bode in our favor.”

Said Duva: “No matter how talented you are, when you get to that gut-check moment, when you get to that fight that’s going to be the toughest of your career, you’ve got to have something inside you that’s different than everybody else. And I see that in Dmitry. I saw that working with Pernell Whitaker. I learned that working with Ray Leonard. There are some guys who are just different. And Dmitry is one of those guys.”

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.