One of the biggest fights of the year takes place on Saturday when WBC, IBF and WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev meets WBA champion Dmitry Bivol in a long-awaited clash to crown an undisputed champion. The fight takes place at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
For years, Bivol and Beterbiev have dominated the 175-pound division, with a bout between the two seemingly inevitable, though failing to come together until the two sides finally reached an agreement to meet on June 1. That fight ended up getting delayed to Saturday after Beterbiev suffered a training camp injury.
Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KO) is the only current champion in boxing with a 100% stoppage rate. That power suggests Beterbiev is a pure brawler, and his mauling style backs up that assumption. Beterbiev is, however, a talented technician who was a successful amateur who won European and world championships before turning professional.
In 2017, Beterbiev stopped Enrico Kolling to win the IBF title, his first world championship as a professional. Interestingly, Beterbiev stopped Kolling with just 27 seconds remaining in the 12th and final round, the closest he’s come to reaching the judges’ scorecards.
Beterbiev stopped Oleksandr Gvozdyk in a much-anticipated 2019 unification bout to add the WBC title to his collection. Three fights later, Beterbiev thumped Joe Smith Jr. in the second round to capture the WBO title. He has gone on to defend his three world titles against Anthony Yarde and Callum Smith.
“I don’t know about it but if [Alalshikh] helped for this fight to happen, I think we know that man. He helped us for this fight. But we never know if it wouldn’t have happened [without him],” Beterbiev said. “Every good boxer wants to have an opportunity like this. I’m really happy. I’ve been working toward this goal everyday.”
Like Beterbiev, Bivol (23-0, 12 KO) transitioned from a successful amateur career to the professional ranks. His path to becoming the WBA “super” champion was a fairly confusing one.
Bivol defeated Felix Valera in 2016 to win the WBA interim title. He would fight four times, twice defending the interim title, before being elevated to “regular” champion in late 2017 after a chain of events that saw Andre Ward retiring as “super” champion and Badou Jack vacating the “regular” title.
Bivol would defend the “regular” version of the title five times before finally being elevated to the true world championship “super” champion status in 2019.
While already recognized as one of the best boxers in the world, Bivol finally got exposure in the larger boxing world when he was selected by generational superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez as an opponent in Alvarez’s attempt to move up to light heavyweight and become a 175-pound champion for the second time in his career.
Against Alvarez, Bivol put on a boxing masterclass, using effective defense and technique to score a massive upset and hand Alvarez just the second defeat of his professional career.
