Dmitry Bivol says the punching power of unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev wasn’t as good as he’d imagined it to be before they fought on October 12th last year in Riyadh. Beterbiev vs. Bivol will meet this Saturday, February 22nd, in Riyadh. The event will be shown live on DAZN PPV.
Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) says he’d imagined Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) to have powers like “Superman” but found out that he’s just a “human.” There are bigger punchers at 175 than Beterbiev, but they’re not as relentless as him when attacking.
Beterbiev’s power was good enough to put Bivol in the run from the sixth round after he got clipped and wound up losing a 12-round majority decision.
The Eye Issue
Bivol had fought well in the first five rounds when Beterbiev was tentative, looking overly cautious before throwing punches. He treated Bivol like a knockout artist instead of a regular boxer, weaker than many of the fighters he’d fought recently. Once Beterbiev lost his fear of Bivol, it was a one-sided affair for the last half of the contest.
Dmitry’s left eye still looks damaged from his last fight against Beterbiev. It’ll be interesting to see if that eye swells up immediately once Artur starts landing his shots on it. It looks jacked up. That eye looks like it’s going to be a big problem for Bivol. I wouldn’t be surprised if it swells up and closes if he makes it into the second half against Beterbiev.
“When I’m preparing for somebody, I try to give him more credit. I’m trying to think I’m fighting against some Superman, but when you go in the ring and you’re fighting, it’s easier. You can see it’s just a human,” said Dmitry Bivol to BoxNation about Artur Beterbiev’s punching power not being as good as he’d thought it would be.
“I was not lucky to not win this fight. I think it will be similar. We cannot change our styles. We cannot change the technique of our punches for this for this time,” said Bivol when asked how he sees his rematch with Beterbiev panning out. “We can improve in all positions but not change.”
