Artur Beterbiev says his team has made some changes to their training and he hopes to improve by at least 10% for his rematch with Dmitry Bivol on February 22 in Riyadh.
Undisputed light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) won’t reveal what areas he’s improved in, but he hopes it’s enough to make the fight more exciting.
10% better
Beterbiev’s facial expression in this week’s interviews suggests he will attack Bivol non-stop and force him to fight or flee. Last time, Bivol ran away, which saved him from being knocked down, but it still cost him the fight. He was too focused on survival.
I suspect that will be his main focus this time around once he starts feeling the heat from Beterbiev. Bivol is a good fighter when he’s not dealing with anything being thrown back at him. But when his opponents throw, he bombs or retreats. He always fought this way.
“We changed some things in training. I hope to be better in this fight than in the first fight,” Artur Beterbiev told talkSport Boxing about his rematch with Dmitry Bivol on February 22. “Before I was undisputed, I wanted to get a fourth belt. Now I want to keep them.
“If I get any offers for this thing, I’ll look at them. So far I only received one offer for a rematch and I accepted it,” Beterbiev said when asked if he would be willing to move up to cruiserweight after that to fight.
“I can accept any fight if I have different offers. I will check with my team and I will accept it,” Beterbiev said when asked if he would be interested in fighting Canelo Alvarez or Jai Opetaia if he beats Bivol.
“28 years old,” Beterbiev replied when asked how old he was.
Bivol Tactics
He’s too old at 34 to change now, and the only thing he can do differently in the rematch is hold on more. This is what many fighters say he should have done last time. This is what we will likely see more of from Bivol to neutralize Beterbiev’s offense.
Last time, Beterbiev started slowly, letting Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) win the first quarter of the fight with his jab and quick left-right combinations.
Beterbiev started looking like his usual self midway through the fight. Bivol had become confident and showed no respect for Artur as he had in his recent fights against Malik Zinad, Lyndon Arthur and Gilberto Ramirez.
Clearly, Bivol misjudged Beterbiev and paid the price as he took the fight back in 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 lobbying for Bivol to win the fight. They think he did enough to win the first fight, although they admit he didn’t seem to win a single round from the sixth onwards. They still think he won. It didn’t look like Bivol had won.
For Bivol to win, he will also have to fight more aggressively, as Beterbiev is going to put more pressure on him this time. The judges preferred Artur’s attacking style to Bivol’s retreating style.
“If I have a chance to get 10%, I will be much better,” Beterbiev told Queen Berry Promotions on the improvement that would make him happy for his rematch with Bivol. “I can’t tell you. You will tell Bivol. I know you talk about me at Bivol,” Beterbiev said when asked what areas he wants to improve.
“I hope and believe that it will be a more interesting fight than the first, because now we know each other,” Beterbiev said of the rematch with Bivol.
