Soon after the engaging light-heavyweight showdown between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol was complete, thoughts turned to an immediate rematch.
The undisputed battle which took place between two unbeaten fighters proved to be a tight and technical contest as the power of Beterbiev and the skills of Bivol vied for supremacy.
At the conclusion of the the bout it was Beterbiev who was narrowly deemed to have done enough to win having come on strong in the later rounds after applying plenty of unrelenting pressure.
Bivol was magnanimous in defeat but immediately stated his desire for a rematch, with many fans and pundits feeling he did enough to get his hand raised. His team has since sent requests to all four major sanctioning bodies to make it happen.
Speaking on journalist Dan Rafael’s Fight Freak’s Unite podcast, Beterbiev’s promoter Bob Arum explained that the earliest it could take place is next October.
“Turki Alalshikh and the public would love to see a rematch. But because the Riyadh Season ends in February the next date for a rematch would be next October.”
Rafael then pointed out that Alalshikh has promoted some fights outside of Riyadh Season, which runs from October to March, but Arum said that wouldn’t be happening again.
“They will not do that in the future. There was a lot of pushback on His Excellency for doing fights outside of Saudi Arabia and outside of Riyadh Season. Going forward, in order to tap into the large budget that they have, they will have to do the fights in Riyadh Season in Saudi, which makes sense.”
It looks like both men will have to take interim fights before a rematch, with Beterbiev already having had his IBF mandatory named as German Michael Eifert. When he steps back through the ropes he will be 40-years-old.
