Jim Lampley, the longtime voice of HBO Boxing, is effusive in his praise for the rivalry between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev.
Bivol won the rematch with Beterbiev on Saturday via majority decision, two judges seeing it 116-112 and 115-113, while the third had it even at 114-114, a reverse of the identical scores in Beterbiev’s favor in the first fight.
Lampley, appearing on the Ariel Helwani Show to talk about his upcoming book, noted the evenness of the rivalry, but also the action – something many would say does not compare to the very best battles in history.
“People ask me, ‘Does it rise to the level of Gatti-Ward and Barrera-Morales in terms of the intensity of the combat?’” Lampley said. “I say yes.”
Lampley said he would be open to Bivol fighting his top remaining contender next instead of going directly into a rubber match with Beterbiev.
“It’s fair to go into a [David] Benavidez fight,” Lampley said. “Not all trilogies have to take place 1-2-3, in consecutive order.”
Indeed, Muhammad Ali fought 13 times between his first and second bouts with Joe Frazier, and another four times before the hellish “Thrilla in Manila.” Evander Holyfield took an interim bout between his first and second bouts with Riddick Bowe, and two more between the second and third (though his trilogy with John Ruiz, half a decade later, actually was a 1-2-3).
While Benavidez was at super middleweight, he was denied a fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Benavidez has earned himself a title shot and spot among the pound-for-pound best with wins over Caleb Plant and Demetrius Andrade at 168lbs, and over Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell at 175.
Were Bivol and Beterbiev to fight a third time, then Benavidez would have to take a lateral or backward step to fight Callum Smith or another opponent. Smith beat Joshua Buatsi on the Beterbiev-Bivol II undercard to win the interim WBO title. That, like the secondary WBA and WBC belts Benavidez owns, has him in line as a mandatory challenger to Bivol, the new undisputed champion. Michael Eifert, the IBF’s No. 1-rated light heavyweight, is also awaiting a shot.
“These two guys [Bivol and Beterbiev] have given a great deal of themselves and shown their commitment in fighting the two fights that they’ve fought against each other,” Lampley said. “If either one of them wants to divert his attention to another fight and engage in another enterprise, I strongly support that. They need to have the right to govern their careers the way they want to.”
This last line conflicts directly with something Beterbiev said after the rematch when asked if he wanted a trilogy: “Actually, I didn’t even want the rematch. It wasn’t my choice.”
If Beterbiev and Bivol are to fight a third time and preserve the quality of their rivalry, timing is of the essence for Beterbiev, who at 40 years old failed to close the rematch as strongly as he did in the first fight and could continue to decline.
Lampley is fine with a trilogy as well: “If we’re gonna go to the third fight between Beterbiev and Bivol, I’m ready for that too.”
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