Artur Beterbiev says his team has made some changes to his training and hopes to be at least 10% improved for his rematch with Dmitry Bivol on February 22 in Riyadh.
Undisputed light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) isn’t revealing what areas he’s improved on, but he’s confident it’s enough to make the fight more interesting.
10% Better
The look on Beterbiev’s face during the talks this week suggests he will be attacking Bivol relentlessly and forcing him to fight or run. Last week, Bivol ran away, which helped him to be knocked down, but it cost him the fight. He was very focused on survival.
I suspect that will be his main goal this time around once he starts feeling the heat from Beterbiev. Bivol is a good fighter when he doesn’t face anything thrown at him. But when his opponents throw, he explodes or retreats. He always fights like that.
“We changed some things in training. I hope I will be better in this fight than in the first fight,” said Artur Beterbiev speaking to talkSport Boxing about his rematch with Dmitry Bivol on February 22. “Before I was unopposed, I wanted to get the fourth belt. Now, I want to keep them.
“If I find anything about this, I will look into them. Until now I have received a rematch request and I accepted it,” said Beterbiev when asked if he could move up to cruiserweight after this fight.
“I can fight any fight if I have different plans. I will look for my team to take it,” said Beterbiev when asked if he would be interested in a fight with Canelo Alvarez or Jai Opetaia if he defeats Bivol.
“28,” Beterbiev said when asked how old he was.
Bivol’s tactics
He is too old at 34 to change now, something he can do differently in a rematch. That’s what many fighters say he should have done last time. That’s what we’ll see more of from Bivol to mitigate Beterbiev’s offense.
Finally, Beterbiev started slowly, allowing Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) to win the first quarter of the fight with his jab and quick left combinations.
Beterbiev started to look like his normal self in the middle of the fight. Bivol was now confident and did not respect Artur as he had done in his recent fights against Malik Zinad, Lyndon Arthur, and Gilberto Ramirez.
Obviously, Bivol misjudged Beterbiev and paid the price because he took the fight from the sixth round and never looked back. The scores were 115-113, 116-112 for Beterbiev, and 114-114.
Interestingly, many fans and fighters are rooting for Bivol to win the fight. They believe he did enough to win the first fight, admitting he hasn’t seemed to win a single round since the sixth. They still think he won. It didn’t look like Bivol won.
For Bivol to win, he will need to fight with more aggression, because Beterbiev will be pressing him harder this time. The judges liked Artur’s way of attacking Bivol.
“If I have a 10% chance, I’ll be a lot better,” said Beterbiev speaking to Queensberry Promotions about how much improvement he would be happy with in his rematch with Bivol. “I won’t tell you. He will tell Bivol. I know you are talking about me and Bivol,” said Beterbiev when asked which areas he wants to improve.
“I hope and believe that it will be a more interesting fight than the first one, because now we know each other,” said Beterbiev about the rematch with Bivol.
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