Artur Beterbiev looked noticeably bigger than Dmitry Bivol today, weighing in at 175 lbs, right at the limit of the light heavyweight division for their DAZN PPV rematch this Saturday, February 22nd, at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The slimmer-looking Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) came in at 174.1 lbs.
Bivol is going to have to find a higher gear for him to come out victorious on Saturday night, because he looked like he had nothing left in the tank after five rounds in his first fight against then unified light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs).
That fight was on by Beterbiev, and many see him beating Bivol again because he’s more willing to brawl. Bivol can’t do that. That’s not part of his fighting style, and although he says he will throw more punches in the rematch, those are just words. He won’t.
Weigh-in Results
Artur Beterbiev 175 lbs. vs. Dmitry Bivol 174.1 lbs
Joseph Parker 267 lbs vs. Martin Bakole
Shakur Stevenson 134.1 lbs vs. Josh Padley 134 lbs
Carlos Adames 158.1 lbs. vs. Hamzah Sheeraz 159 lbs
Vergil Ortiz Jr. 153.1 lbs vs. Israil Madrimov 152.1 lbs
Zhilei Zhang 287.5 lbs vs. Agit Kabayel 241 lbs
Joshua Buatsi 175 lbs vs. Callum Smith 174.1 lbs
Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) will weigh in later, as he’s still traveling from his home country of the Congo to replace Parker. This is arguably a more interesting fight than the initially scheduled bout between IBF champion Daniel Dubois and Parker (35-3, 23 KOs).
“I think Artur is the favorite because he won the first fight, but I think Bivol is no pushover, and he’s going to come to fight tomorrow,” said Terence Crawford to DAZN Boxing.
“Beterbiev was right at 175 lbs. Am I reading that as the weight was difficult to make, or is he just perfecting making light heavyweight?” said DAZN commentator Ade Oladipo.
“Perhaps a little bit of both. Perfection because you want to be at the top end of the weight, but he looked good on the scales. So did Bivol,” said Darren Barker. It just sets up a fantastic fight now.”
