Artur Beterbiev may need a knockout to retain his undisputed light heavyweight championship in his bout with crafty ex-WBA 175-lb champion Dmitry Bivol in their DAZN PPV rematch this Saturday night, February 22nd, at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. Turki Alashikh has spoken, making it known that he wants a trilogy fight if Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) wins Saturday’s clash with Artur.
Beterbiev’s Only Option? KO
This means that if the rounds are even slightly close, Bivol will be given them. All the grumbling from Bivol’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, and the fans over the previous results, believing that Beterbiev was gifted a decision, won’t be lost on the judges. Predictably, Bivol will win the rematch unless Beterbiev can take the judges out of play with a knockout.
One thing that is going for Beterbeiv (21-0, 20 KOs) is all the talk Bivol has been doing lately about wanting to throw more punches, be more aggressive, and make a fight of it this time. That could mean that Bivol will choose to fight in the trenches, which favors Beterbiev, who is much more powerful and physically built for combat. Bivol is a finesse fighter who hates getting hit and prefers to retreat immediately after landing a shot.
Things could be challenging for Beterbiev if Bivol chooses to punch and hold, as he frequently did in the first fight. In the video clips of Bivol’s training, he’s been seen doing a lot of wrestling, which furthers the belief that he will use clinching as his main line of defense on Saturday. So unless Beterbiev has a remedy for that, his offense maybe 100% neutralized by the grappling from Dmitry.
“My thing for Bivol is Beterbiev, five months prior to the October fight, had knee surgery,” said Ade Oladipo to DAZN Boxing, talking about Artur Beterbiev fighting Dmitry Bivol in their first clash coming off recent knee surgery for a blown meniscus.
“The only factor I can think of for Bivol is that age will surely at some point catch up to Beterbiev. Father Time gets you in the ring. I’ve seen all the best fighters in the world have that night where it just got them,” said Ade.
“Being there for the fight, I took Bivol as just nicked it, but again, it’ll be a good fight. It’ll be who has done their homework, who studied more and who can make the better adjustments and stick to their game plan,” said Joshua Buatsi on the Beterbiev vs. Bivol 2 rematch on Saturday.
