Artur Beterbiev says he’s considering moving up in weight if he’s victorious in his undisputed light heavyweight clash against WBA 175-lb champion Dmitry Bivol on October twelfth in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The IBF, WBC, and WBO champion Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) states that he may have completed his goal of capturing all of the belts at light heavyweight if he’s victorious in his 12 round contest against Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs). Nevertheless, he’s still undecided what he’ll do next.
If Beterbiev does move as much as cruiserweight, fans can be fascinated by a fight between him and unbeaten IBF champion Jai Opetaia, who’s viewed as the very best fighter within the division.
Opetaia is a very good fighter, but he looked uncomfortable with the pressure placed on him in his last fight against Mairis Briedis of their rematch on May 18th.
Beterbiev-Bivol might be shown live to tell the tale ESPN+ on the Kingdom Arena in a split broadcast event. The undercard might be displayed on one other network.
It can be difficult for Beterbiev to defeat Bivol because he may have to chop off the ring and chase him across the ring all night. In recent training footage of Bivol, he’s using plenty of movement, which indicates that he’ll try to maintain Beterbiev on the skin.
“I’m not enthusiastic about a face-off. I’m enthusiastic about a fight. He’s a very good boxer and he’s my challenge,” said Artur Beterbiev to the Queensberry YouTube channel, talking about his fight against Dmitry Bivol on October thirteenth.
“I don’t know. I already had two fights toward undisputed in a unification fight, and the 2 guys are good too, and we’ll see what happens with this guy,” said Beterbiev when asked if Bivol is the hardest fight of his profession.
Beterbiev has recently knocked out Callum Smith, Anthony Yarde, and WBO champion Joe Smith Jr. None of those fighters gave Beterbiev many problems. Yarde fought well earlier within the fight but was worn down by the pressure from Beterbiev and knocked out within the eighth round last yr on January twenty eighth.
“No. No fights are personal,” said Beterbiev. “It’s only like I need one other belt. I feel like within the boxing gym, whenever you do a job, I feel like there’s space to do higher. I all the time feel like this. I would like to do more training on my skills. I’ll attempt to be good boxer.”
Attempting to box Bivol may not be a very good idea for Beterbiev because he’s higher off specializing in his usual fighting style by trying to knock him out. If Beterbiev gets right into a boxing match, he can be playing into his hands.
“My goal is to be a very good boxer in the future. It means I’m not there yet. I would like to do hard training because I’m not there. I’m not a very good boxer yet. I might be a very good boxer if I do hard training,” said Beterbiev.
“I believe for this category, it’s the foremost goal,” said Beterbiev. He’ll have gone so far as he wanted if he captured the undisputed at light heavyweight. “We’ll see after. Challenges could also be in several categories. Go up [in weight]. I’m not focused on this stuff,” said Beterbiev.
