Dmitry Bivol has tasted the power of both Artur Beterbiev and Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez.
Canelo made his second move up to light-heavyweight in May of 2022 to challenge for Bivol’s WBA World Title. The Mexican, despite being a favourite to win, was out-gunned and out-boxed on the night, suffering a first loss in almost ten years.
After holding onto his belt, Bivol defended it three times before meeting Beterbiev in an undisputed contest last year.Up until that point, Beterbiev had knocked out 100% of the men he had faced, and was the only world champion with the record.
The undisputed fight with Bivol was a much tighter affair in which Beterbiev started slow but eventually got a foothold and started to land enough of his heavy shots to get the first points win of his campaign.
The pair rematch this Saturday on a huge card in Saudi Arabia and ahead of the fight Bivol has been speaking to Manouk Akpyan about how his opponent’s power compared with ‘Canelo’s.
“Yeah, of course, [Beterbiev] punches more naturally harder. He doesn’t put too much effort into being hard. Other fighters, they put effort in to make their punches hard. He doesn’t much too much effort.”
He was then asked how he felt about how he did in the first fight.
“I wasn’t happy with my performance I know I could be better. Maybe 5 or 6 out of 10.”
