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Artur Beterbiev says his team has made some changes to their training and hopes to be at least 10% improved for their rematch with Dmitry Bivola on February 22 in Riyadh.
Undisputed light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) isn’t revealing what areas he’s improved on, but he reckons it will be enough to make the fight more exciting.
10% better
Beterbiev’s face during the interview this week suggests that he will constantly attack Bivol and force him to fight or run. Last time Bivol escaped, 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 goal this time when he starts to feel the heat from Beterbiev. Buffalo is a good fighter when he is not concerned with getting anything back. But when his opponents throw, he shoots or retreats. He always fought like that.
“We changed some things in training. I hope I will be better in this fight than I was in the first fight,” said Artur Beterbiev talkSport Boxing about his rematch with Dmitry Bivola on February 22. “Before I was undisputed, I wanted to get the fourth belt. Now, I want to keep them.
“If I get any offers on this thing, I’ll look at them.” So far I have only received an offer for a rematch and I accepted it,” Beterbiev said when asked if he would be ready to move to the cruiserweight division after this fight.
“I can accept any fight if I have different offers. I’ll check with my team and take him,” Beterbiev said when asked if he would be interested in fighting Canelo Alvarez or Yai Opetaya if he beats Bivol.
“28,” Beterbiev said when asked how old he was.
Buffalo tactics
He is too old at 34 to change now, and the only thing he can do differently in the second leg is hold more. That’s what many fighters say he should have done last time. That’s what we’ll likely see more of from Bivol to neutralize Beterbiev’s offense.
Last time, Beterbiev started slowly, letting Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) use his jab and quick left-right combinations to win the first quarter of the fight.
Beterbiev started to look like himself in the middle of the fight. Bivol gained confidence and did not show respect to Arthur as he did in his recent fights against Malik Zinad, Lyndon Arthur and Gilbert Ramirez.
Clearly Bivol misjudged Beterbiev and paid the price as he took the fight from 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 rooting for Buffalo to win the fight. They believe he did enough to win the first fight, even they admit he didn’t seem to win a single round in the sixth. They still think he won. It didn’t look like Buffalo had won.
In order for Bivol to win, he will have to fight with more aggression, because Beterbiev will put more pressure on him this time. The judges favored Arthur’s attacking style over Bivol’s retreating style.
“If I have a 10 percent chance, I’ll be much better,” Beterbiev said Queensberry Promotions about how much improvement would make him happy for a rematch with Bivola. “I can’t tell you.” You will tell Buffalo. I know you’re talking about me, Bivolj,” Beterbiev said when asked which areas he wants to improve.
“I hope and believe that it will be a more interesting fight than the first one, because now we know each other,” said Beterbiev about the rematch with Bivola.
