At 40, Artur Beterbiev defending his standing as the first undisputed light-heavyweight champion since Roy Jones Jnr is nothing new for a fighter who has long maintained a position of superiority over his foes in the department of experience.
Russia’s Beterbiev was already 28 and compiled nearly 300 amateur fights, including three with eventual undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and another against former light-heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev, before even making his pro debut.
Maintaining that big-brother stature, Beterbiev, 21-0 (20 KOs), returns to Saudi Arabia on Saturday for a rematch against countryman and former WBA champion Dmitry Bivol, 23-1 (12 KOs), following Beterbiev’s majority decision victory in October.
Beterbiev weighed in at the limit 175lbs on Friday while Bivol, 34, weighed 174.1lbs for the main event of Saturday’s loaded card that also features middleweight and lightweight title fights.
“I hope this fight is better than the first fight,” Beterbiev said when interviewed at the weigh-in.
How so?, he was asked. “We’ll see,” the man of few words said.
Since Beterbiev keeps things so close to the vest, we reached out to one of the men that helped sculpt his career, Top Rank’s hall-of-fame matchmaker Bruce Trampler
“There’s a lot easier jobs to take than this guy,” Trampler said. “He’s a hardened, older veteran guy who gives no quarter. His defense is his offense. He’s coming to hurt you.”
Such has been the case since Top Rank began promoting Beterbiev in 2017, when Beterbiev first captured a 175lbs belt by knocking out Germany’s Enrico Koelling in the 12th round in Fresno, California, to capture the belt vacated by Andre Ward’s retirement.
“With Koelling, the guy was in there to survive, and Beterbiev just kept the pressure on, kept going and going.” Trampler recalled. “Beterbiev turned up the heat on him and that was the end of it.”
Top Rank aligned with Canada’s Camille Estephan to promote Beterbiev.
“We knew he was a long-time amateur who had fought and beat some top guys, Usyk, Kovalev,” he said. “He was very impressive that night [in Fresno]. And when you’d watch him in training, it’s just so impressive. Nobody works harder than him.”
Top Rank’s advantage of aligning with Beterbiev as he ascended to champion is that fighters couldn’t avoid fighting him. The promoter pursued mandatory opponents and those daring to unify.
“You’d just go right to the ratings: who does he have to fight?” Trampler said. “It wasn’t as difficult as when you’re trying to build up or develop a fighter. Once he’s got the title, it was all about, ‘Who wants to test the smoke?’ Because this guy really brings the smoke.”
Among his next eight bouts, Beterbiev ended three before the close of the fifth round, including a second-round knockout of Joe Smith Jnr with three belts on the line, while sending an unbeaten champion, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, into a three-year retirement.
“He engenders respect – he’s a serious guy, he’s a man,” Trampler said. “Not very vocal, but very polite; respectful.
“I can see how Bivol has the style to beat him. He beat Canelo [Saul Alvarez], easily. But there’s something about Beterbiev. My impression in being around him is I don’t think he feels any pressure. He’s so mature; so comfortable and confident about what he can do to somebody.
“He’s a relentless guy, and that’s one of the many reasons that the Bivol fight is so interesting. Bivol has the perfect style to beat Beterbiev and Beterbiev has the perfect style to beat Bivol.”
At Friday’s weigh-in, Bivol recognized he needs to increase his activity while also doing a better job of avoiding Beterbiev’s hammering punches – a conflicting set of tasks.
Yet Trampler also considers the dual meanings of Beterbiev’s age. He’s seen more, but is he slowing?
“I recall when the first fight ended, I thought, ‘This fight could go either way,’” he said. “And now Beterbiev’s a year older. We know that’s not in Beterbiev’s favor. We know how he’s going to fight: from the opening bell, he’s going to try and destroy Bivol. That’s who he is. Bivol is a real good athlete. He does everything right. And maybe, depending on who’s opinion you liked that first night, maybe he did enough to win last time. It’s the perfect match of styles.
“Beterbiev is just so mature, so comfortable and confident about what he can do to somebody… still he’s likely going to have some frustrating moments in this rematch.”
Being 40, facing the determined Bivol and dealing with a guy who knows him after their 12 rounds together is something new.
“My sense of it from the first fight was, ‘That’s the best Beterbiev you’re going to see’,” Trampler said. “The respect I have for Bivol. He has more things to do better. There were things he could do that he didn’t do in that first fight. With that 12 rounds of experience, I don’t know what Beterbiev can do any differently. He fought his best fight. But Bivol should improve. It’s hard to imagine Beterbiev getting beat, but it could happen.”
Yet, beyond his rooting interest in Beterbiev because of the Top Rank ties, Trampler knows that Beterbiev could turn in victory to face the WBC interim and WBA regular light-heavyweight champion David Benavidez, 30-0 (24 KOs), who will be watching the fight from ringside after scoring a unanimous decision triumph over Cuba’s then-unbeaten David Morrell in a pay-per-view main event on February 1.
“If Bivol wins and goes to Benavidez, it’s not going to be a shootout like a Beterbiev-Benavidez fight,” Trampler said. “Bivol could win a decision with intelligence; athleticism.
“Beterbiev is going to do what he does. He’s been doing it his whole life. I would just like to see him and Benavidez. The other guys in the weight class, they’re not going to survive this man. The two best in the world are fighting Saturday, and if Benavidez is next for Artur, that would excite me as a fan.”
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