The great Roy Jones fought for a while as a light-heavyweight, and just imagine the prime RJ against either of the two best 175 pounders out there today, Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol; the Jones, for example, who showed such ruthless efficiency in taking out the accomplished and skilled Montell Griffin in their rematch. Imagine how severely Jones would have tested the two modern kings. But as far as who will come out on top on October 12, when Bivol and Beterbiev meet for all four world titles in Riyadh, Jones has had some interesting things to say about the upcoming fight.
Speaking with Talk Sport, the one-time “Superman” suggested how huge puncher Beterbiev, 20-0(20), might have a weakness that Jones says is common among big punchers: Beterbiev doesn’t take as great a shot as he gives. Beterbiev, Jones said, has been down a few times, and this has led the former multi-weight champion to wonder “if he takes a good punch.”
“Because Beterbiev is a puncher, if he can hit Bivol he’ll knock him out for sure. Because to me, Beterbiev is one of the best pound-for-pound punchers this game has ever seen. If he can hurt Bivol with his punches if he can catch him, then he has a chance,” Jones said. “But what people fail to realize is Beterbiev has been down three or four times already. That’s usually the weakness of the strong punchers, they don’t take as good as they hit. So when there’s a superb puncher, like Julian Jackson, Gerald McClellan took him out, Mike McCallum took him out. He [Jackson] was a big-time puncher, but these guys don’t beat him on decision – they knock him out. Because he gives a good punch, but he doesn’t take the best punch. If you’ve been down that much in twenty fights, there’s a problem there.”
Fascinating stuff from Jones. There is nothing to make a person think Beterbiev is in any way ‘chinny,’ yet the Russian banger has indeed been dropped, whereas Bivol has never been down. Jones, though, is wrong when he says Beterbiev has been down “three or four times.” Beterbiev has actually been dropped, briefly on both occasions, twice. Jeff Page Jr scored a flash knockdown over Beterbiev in 2014, this in the first round, while Callum Johnson decked Beterbiev in round two of their 2018 fight. On both occasions, Beterbiev jumped up quickly and took care of business, with him stopping both Page Jr and Johnson. But might Bivol, 23-0(12) be able to hurt Beterbiev with his sharp, accurate shots, this if he can land them frequently? Jones is picking Bivol to win, and everyone sees this fight as a classic boxer vs. puncher showdown. We know Beterbiev is the puncher, but can Bivol also land some hurt? It would be quite a surprise if Bivol KO’d or stopped Beterbiev, but Roy Jones, for one, would not be shocked by such a result.
Would YOU be shocked to see Bivol score a KO win on October 12?
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Undefeated Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol meet in nine days to fight for the undisputed light heavyweight championship on October 12th in Riyadh. The winner of this fight will hold all four belts at 175 and will be recognized as the best fighter in the division.
Roy Jr. believes IBF, WBC, and WBO champion Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) can win if he can catch WBA champ Bivol (23-0,12 KOs). That’s going to be the tricky part for the 39-year-old Beterbiev because the elusive Bivol is going to be boxing him, trying not to get hit.
Jones notes that Beterbiev has been knocked down a couple of times in his career, and he suspects that he’s got a chin problem. He feels that Beterbiev would have been dropped if he hadn’t had some kind of issue with his punch resistance. However, the question is whether Bivol will fight aggressively enough to test Beterbiev’s chin. He’s not going to knock Beterbiev out or drop him with one of his jabs or rapid-fire one-two combinations. That’s not happening.
Bivol knocked out his last opponent, little-known Malik Zinad, but he was a random fighter pulled in for a show off the street. It’s unclear if he was selected by His Excellency Turki Alalshik himself or what, but the guy didn’t belong fighting for a world title. Before that fight, Bivol hadn’t knocked out anyone for six years since March 2018, when he stopped Sullivan Barrera in the 12th round.
Beterbiev has been knocked down twice during his career. The first was a flash knockdown by Jeff Page Jr. in 2014, and the second was against Callum Johnson in 2018. He was stunned by Johnson, getting knocked down in the third, but came back to stop him in the fourth.
