Dmitry Bivol believes he has the power to defeat undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev in their rematch on February 22 in Riyadh.
It would be an interesting fight if Bivol chooses to fight more aggressively in the rematch, as he mainly ran and held for the last seven rounds in his loss to Beterbiev two months ago on October 12 in Riyadh. Therefore, the judges gave the victory to Arthur. It seemed like Bivol was trying to get a cheap win by doing the bare minimum.
Bivol is not a big puncher and could put himself in danger if he tries to look for a knockout against Betrbiev, who is above him in the power and toughness department. Dmitri is more of a physical fighter who uses his boxing skills to win matches. He tried this approach against Beterbiev, but withered when attacked.
The new approach of Bivol
Former WBA 175-lb champion Bivol needs to change his fighting style 100% to knock out Beterbiev. Matchroom-promoted Dmitry was overly defensive and showed no desire to stand and engage Beterbiev.
Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) says he is studying video of his 12-round majority loss to Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) from Oct. 12 and is looking for areas where he can improve for the rematch in 75 days . The scores were 115-113, 116-112 for Betterbiev and 114-114.
“I try not to pay attention to what people say. I’m trying to pay attention to what I’m feeling after the fight and what I need to do,” Dmitry Bivol told Secondsout about how he’s handling fan feedback as he heads into his February 22 rematch with Artur Beterbiev.
“Of course, I felt that I have enough strength. We have a saying, “Even a stick (gun) once a year can shoot.”
“It makes you weaker if you make some excuses. He wants to fight him,” Bivol said of Terence Crawford wanting to fight Canelo Alvarez.
It’s hard to take Bivol seriously with his talk that he thinks he can beat Beterbiev because he looked too scared to do anything but survive once Artur ramped up his offense after the fifth round.
Conquering Doubt
Bivol saw in his eyes a person chasing him an angry bearand he had no fight in him. It was pure terror. To even win the rematch by decision, Bivol has to be willing to risk being knocked out by standing and engaging Beterbiev, because he failed last time.
Additionally, we saw the same thing from Dmitri when he fought Lyndon Arthur last year on December 23rd. Bivol was hurt by a hard shot by Arthur in the eighth and was on the run from that point on. When Dmitri gets hit hard, he quits the fight and looks nothing like a world class fighter.
What was hilarious and disappointing was how Bivol’s promoter Eddie Hearn was complaining about the decision afterwards, feeling that Dmitri had won. Hearn chose not to take the high road of being gracious in defeat and blustering for the score.
He should have conceded that Bivol gave the fight away by running from rounds six through twelve. Of course, if Hearn admitted that Bivol didn’t show heart under the heat of the fight, there would be no point in a rematch.
Hopefully the Beterbiev-Bivol rematch will close the chapter on this rivalry because it will be more fun for fans to see Beterbiev fight the winner of the February 1 fight between David Benavidez and David Morrell. These two have much more fan-friendly styles than Bivol, who has a Shakur style.
