All-time great Roy Jones sure had some great nights while fighting at 175 pounds, but for some, RJ, AKA “Superman” (and he was in his heyday), was at his prime best at super middleweight. In any case, Jones, speaking with Boxing Social on the biggest light heavyweight fight of recent times – Artur Beterbiev Vs. Dmitry Bivol, for all the marbles – spoke some words that we should all listen to.
Jones – who topped excellent fighters such as Montell Griffin, Mike McCallum (a past his best version), Virgil Hill, Reggie Johnson, Julio Cesar Gonzalez, and Clinton Woods when boxing at 175 pounds – said the October 12 unification fight between the two unbeaten Russians is “no 50/50 fight.” Jones has a clear winner in mind.
“No. It’s not a 50/50 fight,” Jones said of Bivol, 23-0(12) against Beterbiev, 20-0(20). “One, Beterbiev is much older, Beterbiev has been (knocked) down, Bivol has never been down. Bivol has been in there with who, at the time, was the pound-for-pound best in Canelo Alvarez and made him look like nothing. So it’s not a 50/50. Beterbiev has got everything to show me to bring it back to a 50/50 fight. Right now, Bivol has the advantage [at] 60/40. Now, Beterbiev is a hell of a guy and one hell of a fighter and has awesome power but he has also been down and the way I see it is, if someone else has knocked you down then I’ve got to get you down, you understand me? Now it’s one hell of a punch to walk through to get him down, so it’s a very dangerous game to play.”
It is indeed a dangerous task Bivol, indeed any Beterbiev opponent, faces when going in with the banger who has a 100m percent KO record. Beterbiev maybe 39, and he may have been decked as Jones said, but he got back up to win, and we must remember, not one single fighter has ever managed to go the distance with Beterbiev. But then again, has Beterbiev ever faced as skilled a boxer as Bivol? Has 33-year-old Bivol ever shared a ring with a man with anything like the sheer, venomous power Beterbiev carries?
Questions like these make us all so excited about this (delayed) fight. Jones makes some good points, but for me, it’s Beterbiev by KO, or stoppage, once again when this fight rolls around.
Who do YOU like, and how in the Beterbiev vs. Bivol fight on October 12 in Riyadh?
