Dmitry Bivol has shared the ring with two of this era’s best fighters in Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez and Artur Beterbiev.
Bivol has been the distance with both men. Back in 2022 he became just the second fighter beat Canelo, out-gunning the Mexican over 12 to win a split decision and retain his WBA Light-Heavyweight World Title.
It was that belt he put on the line this weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia against Beterbiev, who brought the WBC, WBO and IBF straps to the table. Bivol heard the final bell – an accomplishment in itself given his fellow champion had an incredible 100% knockout ratio pre-fight – but lost via majority decision.
Despite his promoter Eddie Hearn being incensed by the scorecards, branding the result a robbery and calling for an immediate rematch, Bivol was much more level-headed. He thanked his fans for the support and accepted that that the fight didn’t go in his favour. He also had time to compliment the now undisputed champion’s famed power.
“Of course. He’s powerful. Very powerful. You can see I have a bruise from my hand. He always hit it and it was so hard [it bruised when my own hand] hit my eye.”
Sparring partners and opponents alike have stories of the fearsome shots of Beterbiev, who turned 39 earlier this year.
As far as the best one shot power goes though, Bivol gives the nod to current unified 168 pound champion Canelo, who has only fought at light-heavyweight on two occasions.
In an interview with Fight Hub TV, Bivol was asked again how the power of Beterbiev felt, the 33-year-old said each and every shot he throws is hard to take – a key difference in facing Canelo, who focuses on putting everything behind a single punch.
“You know, he has a heavy punch and it’s very dangerous [but] it’s about how strong he is and not only one punch, all punches in the combinations are heavy.
I could compare like with Canelo, yeah, he put all his energy, all his power on the single punch. And yeah, maybe single punch sometimes he’s harder than Beterbiev. Beterbiev was more close and compact.
But if you ask them to do five punches, Beterbiev, every punch will be hard. With Canelo, maybe the first hard and then not [so much.] … If we ask Beterbiev to [put everything into one punch] maybe his is harder, but he’s not doing it.”
Canelo has 39 knockouts from 62 wins. Since the loss to Bivol, he has been on a run of five straight decision victories.
Before the Beterbiev fight the Mexican superstar had expressed an interest in facing Bivol if he won in an attempt to avenge his loss. It’s much more likely now that the rematch taking place will be between Bivol and Beterbiev. Both have expressed interest and no boxing fan would disapprove given the thriller they produced this weekend.
