His Excellency Turki Alalshikh wants to see WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol fight David Benavidez and IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia if he’s victorious against IBF/WBC/WBO champ Artur Beterbiev on October 12.
Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) hasn’t seemed interested in fighting Opetaia or Benavidez for some reason, and some fans question whether he’ll agree to fight either of those guys due to the risk involved.
Granted, Bivol might lose, but the payday will be nice, and he gets the opportunity to show the fans how good he is. Fans are never going to fight that out if Bivol keeps fighting guys like Malik Zinad, Lyndon Arthur, and Gilberto Ramirez.
He’s got the perfect position going up against the 39-year-old Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs), who will be coming off a recent knee injury when he faces Bivol in October. That gives Bivol a great advantage.
Going up against young and healthy Opetaia and Benavidez will be a different story for Bivol, and he might fall apart.
Bivol will need to decide whether he wants to play it safe after the Beterbiev fight or take the risk of facing Opetaia and Benavidez. Alalshikh isn’t asking a lot of Bivol by wanting him to fight Opetaia and Benavidez because those are fights that he should be interested in taking if he wants to fight the best.
Bivol would need to have his defense on point if he wants to beat those two fighters because they both pack a punch and would pressure Bivol the entire time.
These would be more dangerous opponents for Bivol, but if he’s as good as he and his promoter Eddie Hearn think he is, he shouldn’t have any problems beating Benavidez and Opetaia.
Having Bivol on a 5 vs. 5 event in Saudi Arabia against Opetaia or Benavidez would be great for the fans to see how well he does against those talents.
Last Updated on 06/04/2024
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